‘Drunk’ son drives mother to hospital

A GLYNN MAN who was drunk while driving his sick mother to hospital has been ordered to complete 200 hours of Community Service in lieu of serving six months in jail.

Before Wexford District Court last week was Richard Power, 4 Carrigmannon, who pleaded guilty to drink driving on December 29 last year.

Garda Liam O’Gorman told how he received a report around 8.50 p.m. of an Opel Corsa being driven dangerously between Barntown and Wexford on that date. He headed out that direction, and saw the car negotiate the Ballindinas roundabout in the wrong lane. The driver failed to indicate when leaving the roundabout, and was then weaving from side to side while continuing to drive towards town.

He stopped the driver, Richard Power, and brought him to Wexford Garda Station. A sample taken there showed a reading of 84 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.

The court heard that Power had seven previous convictions, and had already served bans for drink driving that were imposed in 1999 and 2007.

His solicitor, Ed King, accepted ‘ there is no doubt a pattern’ to his client’s behaviour, but submitted he was driving only because there was no other way of getting his mother to hospital that night.

Judge Gerard Haughton replied that an ambulance could have been called.

He ordered that Power do 200 hours of Community Service in lieu of six months in prison on the count of drink driving, and disqualified him from driving for six years.

A similar order of 200 hours in lieu of six months was made in respect of a count of driving without insurance, with the orders to run concurrently.