A man who swapped seats with his girlfriend after a series of dangerous driving manoeuvres has escaped going to jail.
Eugene Flanagan appeared at Letterkenny District Court today charged with dangerous driving after he twice overtook an off-duty Garda on the main Derry to Letterkenny Road.
Flanagan, of 19 Crawford Square, Derry, was spotted driving erratically and was tail-gating the off-duty Garda and flashing his lights behind him at around 9.30pm yesterday.
He then overtook him on a continuous white line and then pulled into a hard shoulder.
After the off-duty officer passed him by, Flanagan, aged 39, again repeated the manoeuvre.
Gardai were alerted and eventually stopped Flanagan in his silver Vauxhall Vectra at Burt.
Officers found that Flanagan had swapped with his female passenger who was his girlfriend.
Solicitor Patsy Gallagher said his client did not make any excuse for his driving but claimed that his passenger had a personal medical emergency and they had to return to Derry.
Judge Paul Kelly said this was no excuse and described the driving as “highly dangerous.”
Mr Gallagher said his client had not been in trouble for eight years when he was convicted of public order offenses and said there was no evidence of drink or drugs while driving.
Judge Kelly reduced the dangerous driving charge to careless driving and fined Flanagan €200.