Jailed for driving away from checkpoint

THE VEHEMENT denials of Anthony Maguire (27) from 26 Beachside Avenue in Courtown that he was not the driver of a car which sped away from a garda checkpoint were not believed by Judge Gerard Haughton.

Members of the regional support unit gave evidence to the District Court sitting in Gorey of being on patrol at the Raheenagurren East roundabout on the afternoon of September 17, 2015.

Garda Jason Lawlor recalled how he signalled a maroon Skoda Octavia to stop as it approached from the motorway but instead the car accelerated away from the scene and out of sight, heading for Courtown.

The registration number was traced to a man called Sean Mulvanny of 48 Seaview, Poulshone so Lawlor and his colleague Garda Patrick Booth went to that address.

There they found the Octavia and a man wearing a white t-shirt and blue shorts, identified by the witness as the motorist seen at the wheel of the Skoda in Raheenagurren.

Anthony Maguire denied that he was involved, saying that he had nothing to do with the car and that he had been smoking a cigarette in the garden around the time of the alleged incident.

He suggested in court that Mulvanny must have been the culprit, though the Skoda owner’s girlfriend told the gardaí at the time that her partner was not at home.

However, Judge Haughton had no doubt about the matter and moved to convict of dangerous driving and of driving without insurance.

The court learned that father of two Maguire was already disqualified, and that he had a record of previous convictions for various motoring offences – including three for failure to stop for gardaí and four for dan- gerous driving.

The judge pointed out that the defendant had effectively perjured himself in the witness box and handed down a sentence of five months in prison.

The court also took into consideration a charge, to which Maguire pleaded guilty, of possessing a screwdriver found concealed in his jacket after he was seen trying to open doors of cars in a Courtown car park.