Jailed for ‘reckless escapade’

A 35-YEAR- OLD man has been jailed for two years after “a moment of madness” when he took off from a Garda checkpoint near Mallow and drove around the roads of North Cork at reckless and dangerous speeds.

Father-of-four John Casey pleaded guilty to four charges including endangerment and dangerous driving at Ashgrove in Mallow on January 29 last when he appeared at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Casey, with an address at 112 Larchfield, Commons Road, Cork, also pleaded guilty to driving a car without insurance and without a licence at Springville, Kanturk on the same day as part of the same high-speed escapade.

Garda Denis Howard of Mallow Garda Station told the court that gardaí were operating a checkpoint at Newtwopothouse at 1.53pm on the day in question when they stopped a car driven by a woman.

Gardai went to radio in the woman’s details to check if her insurance and licence were in order when Casey, who was a front seat passenger in the car, swooped over into the driver’s seat and took off at high speed.

He sped off towards Buttevant before turning off down a back road for Kanturk, pursued by a number of garda units with blue lights flashing and sirens blaring only to completely ignore the gardaí, said Garda Howard.

He drove on at high speed along country back-roads engaging in dangerous driving and endangering other users on a number of occasions in the course of what proved to be a 15-minute long pursuit.

He overtook cars on his incorrect side of the road approaching blind bends where he had no sight of oncoming traffic, while he also drove through two junctions where he should have stopped to check for oncoming traffic.

The pursuit finally came to an end at Springville, just outside Kanturk, when Casey hit a stone wall, and he fled the scene with gardaí only finding his companion, the woman, uninjured in the crashed car. Gardai mounted a search and they found Casey hiding under bushes in a nearby field a short time later, and he was arrested and later questioned about the entire escapade, said Garda Howard.

Casey had a total of 132 previous convictions including six for dangerous driving, 16 for driving without a driving licence and 19 for driving without insurance, and he was disqualified from driving at the time of the incident.

Defence barrister Katie O’Connell BL put it to Garda Howard that Casey did not plan the episode and Garda Howard accepted that and that Casey was co-operative once he was found in the field and had entered an early guilty plea.

“He had a row with his partner and he lost the run of himself,” she said as she pleaded for leniency.

Judge Ó Donnabhain sentenced Casey to three years in jail but suspended the final 12 months, and he also disqualified him from driving for 20 years.