A man who couldn’t get a taxi home from the Clonmany Festival was caught by Gardai for drink-driving.
Hugh Prior, aged 50, was stopped by Gardai at Strad, Clonmany at 10.50pm on Saturday night last, AUgust 12th.
Gardai said that Prior was driving slowly and in an erratic manner and was unable to stay on the right side of the white road markings.
Prior was arrested and a breath test which gave a reading of 47 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
Solicitor Kevin McElhinney said his client had been driving for 30 years and had no previous convictions for anything including road traffic offences.
He said that Prior, a tarmac worker from Glenmean Close in Belfast, made the wrong decision on the night.
He added that he had been waiting half an hour for a taxi at the festival but could not get want and took a chance on driving the one and half kilometres to his holiday home where he had visited for the past 19 years.
“He accepts now it was the wrong thing to do,” he added.
Judge Deirdre Gerathy said Mr Prior had put up his hands to the case fair and reasonably.
She postponed a two-year driving ban until October 1st and also fined Prior €350.