Caught drink driving after wedding at Ferrycarrig

BARRY POWER (33) of The Leap in Adamstown was put off the road on conviction for drink driving.

Garda Kathleen Costello told how she was on duty in a garda van on the N11 shortly after 5 a.m. on the morning of November 21, 2015.

Crossing the bridge at Ferrycarrig, she noticed a silver Lexus pull out of the Ferrycarrig Hotel and proceed north, wavering around the road as it did so.

After the blue flashing light was activated, the driver pulled up and Power got out to speak to the garda at Kitestown in Crossabeg.

He said that he had been attending a wedding, the garda recalled, and he told her that he had drunk four pints.

He was arrested on suspicion that a drink driving offence had taken place and a blood sample was taken by Doctor Bowe at the barracks in Wexford.

Laboratory analysis disclosed a concentration of alcohol which was over the legal limit for driving.

The details of the processing of the sample was queried in detail by defending solicitor Gerry Flynn during a case that lasted more than an hour and a half before Judge John Cheatle.

However, at the end of the hearing there was no doubt in the judge’s mind that the sample tested in the forensic laboratory was that of Barry Power.

The offender, described as a single man working in a family business with no previous penalty points, was banned from driving for the mandatory two years.