FARMINGTON – A Wilton man who has been convicted of 48 driving-related crimes since 1966 was released on bail after being charged twice in as many weeks for again driving without a license.

Walter G. Noble, 63, of Wilton, hasn’t been eligible to drive in Maine since 1968, according to Robert O’Connell Jr., the state’s director of driver license services at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in Augusta.

“It’s in the top echelon of (bad) driving records that I’ve seen, and I’ve been doing this job for 23-plus years,” O’Connell said of Noble’s six-page history of driving convictions, many of which are criminal offenses, including multiple convictions for operating under the influence and for operating after suspension.

Noble served more than four years of a five-year sentence in state prison for habitual driving offenses before he was most recently arrested by police in Jay on a a charge of driving without a license. That arrest came only six days after he was arrested on charges of giving a relative’s license information after he was stopped for speeding. He was also later summonsed on a charge of driving after license suspension for the same incident.

Noble will have more than 50 driving-related convictions if found guilty of the charges he now faces.

O’Connell said Noble hasn’t been eligible for a Maine driver’s license since 1968, but neither that nor his time in prison has kept him from driving illegally.

“I can’t see anything in my files to indicate he’s ever held a license in Maine,” O’Connell said Wednesday. “It’s a pretty good indication that he is not deterred from driving once he is out in society. Prison didn’t modify his behavior, so it brings up the age-old question: ‘What can you do to modify somebody’s behavior?’ Certain individuals are incorrigible, and no matter what you do to them once they are out in society they are going to continue to commit offenses.”

A woman answering Noble’s phone hung up after asking Noble if he wanted to talk to a reporter to tell his side of the story.

Noble served time from March 2001 to November 2005 at the Bolduc Correction Facility in Warren on convictions of being a habitual offender and operating under the influence, according to the Maine Department of Corrections.

O’Connell said he couldn’t say why Noble would be allowed to post bail and wouldn’t criticize the decision to set a relatively low bail for Noble.

“Bail is designed to ensure the person does not leave the jurisdiction and not as punishment,” he said.

Nor would he criticize local legal authorities for allowing Noble to be released despite such a lengthy record and his apparent disregard for Maine’s motor vehicle laws, but he did say his release raises the issue of whether the public’s safety may be at risk with Noble free to drive again.

“The case could likely be made that he is a threat to highway safety or an imminent threat to public safety,” O’Connell said.

Shortly after his release, a caller anonymously reported Noble was again driving.

Jay police Chief Larry White Sr. said that after checking on the tip it turned out to be Noble’s mother behind the wheel and not him.