Enniscorthy woman with no licence was drink driving on St Patrick’s Day

AN Enniscorthy woman who was caught drink driving without a valid licence or insurance, having been out in the pub for St Patrick’s Day, appeared before the District Court to plead guilty to the charges against her.

Now six months pregnant, Catherine Kennedy (24) of 3 Armstrong’s Range, was present to plead guilty to the offence dating from 1.40 a.m. on March 18 of last year at Tombrick, Ballycarney.

The court heard that Kennedy was stopped on the foot of a report and was arrested on suspicion of drink driving. She was brought to the garda station where she gave a reading of 183mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

Solicitor John Burke O’Leary pointed out that his client was six months pregnant and said that he would be seeking a postponement of any impending driving ban as a result.

In relation to the no insurance charge, he said that Kennedy had been on her father’s policy, but had been removed without knowing. He said that she did have a provisional licence, but as this didn’t cover her to drive unaccompanied on the night in question, the charge of driving without a licence stood.

In relation to the drink driving itself, Mr Burke O’Leary described it as a ma- jor ‘error of judgement’ on his client’s part and one that she deeply regretted.

When considering a postponement, Judge Haughton asked if Kennedy had informed her insurance company of the impending case against her. She said she had not.

With this in mind, the Judge agreed to adjourn the case for a week for Kennedy to produce a letter from the insurance company saying they were aware of proceedings and will cover her. He said that he was minded to hand down a €200 fine on the drink driving and no insurance charges and a three year driving ban for drink driving, along with a two year ban on the insurance charge. He said he’d take the no licence charge into consideration.

However, he opted to put all this back for a week to deal with the postponement.