Woman disqualified for drink driving

A BENCH warrant was issued and later vacated after an Enniscorthy woman arrived late to court to answer to a charge of drink driving and driving without insurance.

Martina O’Brien (42) of 19 Cluain Charman, Ross Road, Enniscorthy, was charged with the offences after being stopped at a checkpoint at Springvalley on April 7 of last year.

The court heard that she failed a roadside breath test and was arrested and brought to Enniscorthy Garda Station where she returned a reading of 70mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. She also admitted at the scene that she was uninsured.

Solicitor Catriona Walsh said that her client was a mother of two and had had a couple of glasses of wine on the night. She said that O’Brien had been saving for insurance when she was stopped and that she took out a policy four days later.

While Ms Walsh said she knew that the Judge’s hands were tied in terms of a driving ban, she asked that it be postponed until September 1 to allow her to get her affairs in order.

Judge Cheatle agreed to this and handed down a 3 year driving ban on the drink driving charge.

While he initially thought about handing a two year consecutive ban down on the no insurance charged, he opted just to take it into consideration as ‘it may effect her prospects of getting insured in the future’.