An Oakland man with a suspended license was charged with driving an unregistered and uninsured pickup truck in West Gardiner over the weekend, getting caught by a state police trooper, and then he was pulled over a second time by the same trooper less than 18 hours later in Hallowell.

Steven Gillespie, 44, of Oakland, was charged Saturday afternoon in West Gardiner with operating after license suspension, illegal attachment of plates, failure to produce proof of insurance, failure to display an inspection sticker and operating an unregistered motor vehicle.

Trooper Chris Rogers said he pulled Gillespie over around 2:30 p.m. Saturday while monitoring traffic at the toll booth on Interstate 295 in West Gardiner after seeing him drive by with an expired inspection sticker. After pulling him over, Rogers determined the license plates on Gillespie’s vehicle were from a different vehicle, the truck he was driving was unregistered, uninspected and uninsured, and his license had been suspended.

Rogers removed the front license plate but the rear plate was stuck in place. He then had the vehicle towed to Gillespie’s home in Oakland. Rather than arresting him, Rogers summoned Gillespie on multiple charges.

“I didn’t arrest him yesterday. I cut him a break and towed his vehicle instead of taking him to jail,” Rogers said Sunday.

Sunday morning, around 8:30 a.m., Rogers was on Second Street in Hallowell when he saw the same vehicle, still absent the removed front plate and still with the same, illegally attached rear plate.

Rogers said he turned around and saw the vehicle pull into a person’s driveway and followed it in. There, he saw Gillespie get out of the vehicle and ordered him to drop the keys, which he had in his hands.

“Ultimately, he said he had no idea whose house he was at, that he was trying to get to work in Brunswick, and was trying to avoid the highway,” Rogers said of Gillespie, whose license was suspended in both Maine and Virginia. “He didn’t say much. Eventually he said he was being stupid. That he never should have been driving.”

This time, Rogers said, Gillespie was arrested, charged with the same set of charges as before and taken to Kennebec County jail in Augusta.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj