A criminal ‘professional boxer’ was caught driving a car with bald tyres in Chippenham.
Gerry Connors, 28, was pulled over by a police officer patrolling the town after they spotted a suspicious vehicle travelling on the A350 Malmesbury Road.
The 2003-plate Subaru Forester was checked by the officer during the late-night traffic stop and two tyres were found to be defective.
Wiltshire Police prosecutor Mike Smith said that the tyres were found to have “no visible tread pattern” and the “cord was exposed around the entire circumference”.
The defendant, of Sharenewton Stire, Rumney, Cardiff, was handed a prison sentence of three years and seven months in 2017 for burglary.
He conned his way into elderly people’s homes in Port Talbot, Wales, stealing cash and jewellery, alongside accomplice family member Michael Myers.
Representing himself at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on 11 March, Connors said he had purchased the car that day (20 October 2020) and was making a journey home.
He said that he did not check the tyres because it was nighttime.
“I should have checked, but sometimes, you don’t”, Connors told the magistrates.
He claimed to be a professional boxer – but when he was quizzed about his income, he confirmed it to be just £2,500 for 2021. Adding: “I do some gardening work too”.
Moments before his sentence was delivered, Connors said: “I’m very sorry, I should have checked the tyres. If I have known I wouldn’t have driven it.”
They fined him £266 and added three points to his driving licence. He was also told to pay £110 prosection costs and a £34 surcharge.
Connors now has a total of nine points on his licence.
