An administrative oversight landed a driver with a significant fine after she appeared before Douglas magistrates.

Michelle Louise Gardner had actually passed her driving test but was fined because she had not yet exchanged her pass certificate for the licence itself.

For the prosecution, James Robinson said police originally pulled the silver Citroen Xara on Peel Road because Gardner was not wearing a seat belt. Gardner was driving, and her partner, Benjamin Yewdall, to whom the car was registered, was the passenger.

They noted the car’s tax disc had expired six months earlier, at the end of April.

She was told to produce her documents at the police station but told police she did not have insurance and had not yet obtained the licence.

Gardner, who is 35 and lives at Sumark Walk in Douglas, admitted having no driving licence or insurance on October 12. Two further charges of not wearing a seat belt and not having car tax were withdrawn by the court.

Yewdall, who is also 35 and lives at the same address, admitted permitting Gardner to drive without insurance and having no tax on his vehicle on the same date.

Defending both of them, Paul Rodgers told the court Gardner had passed her driving test at the end of December 2015. However, the court heard she was pregnant at the time and attending to the administrative process of exchanging her pass certificate for a full licence had not been a priority so it had been overlooked. By 2016 he said they decided they needed a car so had bought the Citroen in Laxey for £3,000.

When the tax expired at the end of April, no further steps were taken to renew it.

‘They are on limited finances and that is why it remained untaxed and the formalities were not attended to,’ Mr Rodgers said.

‘They should not have allowed the car to be driven on that occasion, but they did. They appreciate they should have addressed the formalities, but it should be noted she had passed a test and was therefore certified to be of a safe standard to drive.’

He told the court the couple had four children and Mr Yewdall worked on the railway.

Magistrates were reminded that the offence carried a lower fine and was non-endorseable compared with its more serious counterpart where a person drives who is not even entitled to hold a licence.

Chairman of magistrates’ Alan Gelling said: ‘To drive without insurance is a serious matter. You are lucky nothing happened. The law is there to be obeyed.’

Gardner was fined £50 for having no licence and £200 for no insurance; Yewdall was fined £50 for no tax and £200 for the insurance matter; each pays £50 costs.