Carnew man is fined €1,500 for damaging road

A CARNEW man who caused approximately €5,500 of damage to a public road near his home during the course of a dispute with Wicklow County Council has been fined €1,500 at Arklow District Court.

David Brownrigg of Croneyhorn had previously pleaded guilty to threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour on September 1, 2018 for which he received a €300 fine.

Mr Brownrigg was accused of using the bucket of a digger to scrape the newly laid road surface off the R725 Croneyhorn to Deerpark road after it had been laid.

He told the court that his actions came from a place of frustration and that in his view, the council had been encroaching on his land for many years.

‘We agreed the line which the council wouldn’t go over so I parked my tractor and another vehicle inside that white line so they couldn’t come in on my land. It’s private property in my view,’ Mr Brownrigg told the court.

The court heard that previous to the day of the damage, the defendant and council and garda representative had agreed a point which they marked with a temporary white spray.

Mr Brownrigg said that when the work was carried out, it in fact went far beyond this line and into his land which he had not agreed to.

He told the court that he had agreed for the council ‘to take as much as they wanted’ on the opposite side of the road if they needed to widen the route, but said that to widen the side of his property entrance would only make it more dangerous for him and for road users.

The court heard that he accepted that he had removed some of the road surface but solicitor David Tarrant said that his client only wanted to remove the surface from land which he owned.

Judge David Kennedy said that rather than going through the proper channels, Mr Brownrigg took things into his own hands.

‘I understand that he did it out of frustration, but he didn’t go down the correct route,’ he said.

Saying that he had sympathy for the defendant’s frustration, Judge Kennedy imposed a fine of €1500 and dismissed a charge of criminal damage.

Recognizances were set at €500, half cash in the event of an appeal.