Judge: ‘I’m tempted to do more’

GLENBEIGH MAN DISQUALIFIED FROM DRIVING FOR THREE YEARS FOR TWO CHARGES

A 24-year old Glenbeigh man, who was caught driving with excess alcohol after he was stopped by gardaí having drank all night at the Celtic Music Festival in Cahersiveen, was disqualified from driving for three years at Cahersiveen District Court last week.

The court heard that Mr Moriarty was detected driving with excess alcohol by Gardaí, 14 days after he got a summons to appear before Cahersiveen District Court for a charge of dangerous driving.

Shane Moriarty of 10 Avenue Drive, Glenbeigh was before the court on both charges last week.

The court heard that Mr Moriarty had been driving from Glenbeigh to Killorglin when he attempted to overtake a vehicle in front of him on October, 29, 2017, a bank holiday Sunday morning.

During the manoeuvre he saw a car coming towards him and attempted to take action but was unable to do so and he hit the car coming against him and ended up in a tree on the side of the road.

There were four people in the car in total and they were taken to hospital. Mr Moriarty was fully insured and the injured passengers cases are currently with the personal injuries board, the court was told.

Mr Moriarty was subsequently charged with dangerous driving at Tooreenasliggaun, Killorglin.

The drink driving incident occurred 10 months later on August 5, 2018. The court heard that Mr Moriarty had been drinking at the Celtic Music Festival and got a lift to Killorglin the following day and at around 7pm that day he left the pub and drove out the road and was stopped by Gardaí. His reading was 100mls breath.

Judge David Waters said that the fact that he was caught drink driving 14 days after a summons for court on the dangerous driving was an “aggravating factor” in this case. The court heard that he has previous convictions including for assault and careless driving. Defence solicitor Padraig O’Connell said that these cases will effect his client as he will lose his job and had proposed to emigrate.

Judge Waters said that he was “tempted to do more”.

Mr Moriarty was disqualified from driving for a total of three years for both offences and he was fined €900.