A Co Wexford man who couldn’t remember how he ended up drunk behind the wheel of a car at the other end of the country has been jailed for a total of eight months and put off the road for 10 years.
Father-of-four Martin O’Brien appeared before Letterkenny District Court in Co Donegal charged with a number of offences.
It comes after an incident on June 24th last when a member of the public reported a car being driven in an erratic manner in Letterkenny.
Garda Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that O’Brien has 95 previous convictions and outlined the charges against the 43-year-old.
The offences include public order, theft, dangerous driving and driving without insurance for which O’Brien had served some time in prison.
Sgt Collins said Gardai received an anonymous call from a member of the public on the day after they saw a silver Vauxhall car being driven “all over the road” at Ballyraine in Letterkenny.
The driver, a Martin O’Brien, of The Elms, Park Avenue, Gorey, Co Wexford, was arrested and brought to Letterkenny Garda Station.
When in custody, Gardai discovered that O’Brien was not the owner of the car, he was not insured to drive the car and he also tested positive for alcohol.
O’Brien was charged that at Lidl Carpark,Ballyraine, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal a public place in the said District Court Area of Letterkenny district no 1, while being a specified person as defined in section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 as amended by section 9 of the Road Traffic (No. 2) Act 2011, did drive a mechanically propelled vehicle while there was present in your body a quantity of alcohol such that, within 3 hours after so driving, the concentration of alcohol in your blood did exceed a concentration of 20 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, to wit 124 milligrams.
The charge was Contrary to section 4(2)(b) & 4(5) of the Road Traffic Act 2010.
He was also charged that on the same date and location he did unlawfully use a mechanically propelled vehicle without the consent of the owner or without other lawful authority.
The charge was Contrary to Section 112 of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, (as amended by Section 65 of the Road Traffic Act, 1968, and as amended by Section 18 of the Road Traffic Act, 2006).
O’Brien was also charged on the same date and place was the user of a mechanically propelled vehicle, such vehicle being one for which neither a vehicle insurer nor an exempted person would be liable for injury caused by the negligent use of said vehicle at that time and for which there was not then in force an approved policy of insurance as required by Part VI of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, as amended by Part VI of the Road Traffic Act, 1968, as amended.
That charge was Contrary to Section 56(1) & (3) Road Traffic Act 1961 as amended by Section 18 of the Road Traffic Act, 2006.
Solicitor for the accused, Mr Robert Ryan, told the court that his client had a long addiction to heroin and had been on a methadone programme when he previously came out of prison.
He had turned to alcohol since but Mr Ryan said his client presented as a very different man from when he was arrested.
He said O’Brien had suffered a number of tragedies in his life but was trying ot get his life back on the straight and narrow.
He added that on the day in question, O’Brien had little or no memory of the incidents and doesn’t even know how he ended up in Co Donegal.
The accused had put up his hands to the charges and now wanted to put them behind him.
Judge Eiteain Cunningham sentenced O’Brien to a total of eight months in prison and also banned him from holding a driving licence for ten years.