Drink-drive golf club barman gets second ban
A GOLF club barman spotted “swerving all over the road” has been banned from driving for a second time.
Eamonn Jordan (21), of Harberton Park in south Belfast, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court.
It was the defendant’s second drink-driving offence in a short period of time and because of that District Judge Liam McNally told him he was unsuitable for the drink-driving course which can reduce any ban by a quarter.
Jordan was banned from driving for three years and fined £550 and warned by the judge that if he appears back in court for a similar matter he could find himself facing jail.
The defendant admitted driving with excess alcohol; using a Volkswagen Tiguan without insurance; no driving licence and taking the vehicle without the owner’s consent.
A prosecutor said that at 3.45am on August 20 this year police received a report from a member of an ambulance crew that a Tiguan vehicle was being driven erratically on the Crankill Road dual carriageway in Ballymena and was “swerving all over the road”.
Police stopped the vehicle at 4.08am and it emerged the vehicle belonged to Jordan’s mother who had not given him permission to use it. The defendant had an alcohol/breath reading of 80, with the legal limit being 35 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath. He pleaded guilty in court where defence barrister Thomas McKeever said his client was a barman in a “local golf club”.Mr McKeever said Jordan had a relevant record with a previous drink-driving offence last year which he said was “out of character”.
Judge McNally said it was “disturbing” that having done the drink-driving course it didn’t have much impact on the defendant as within a month of being back on the road he was drink-driving again.
He said it would be a “waste of time” to offer the defendant the course again.