A DEFENDANT uses cannabis to help him sleep, a Judge was told, when the man appeared before him charged with driving under the influence of cannabis.
Preston Walsh, 2 Annagh, Ballyglunin appeared before Judge James Faughnan at Tuam District Court on the cannabis charges and also of not being insured to drive the car he was stopped in.
Garda Michelle Hallinan gave evidence of stopping Walsh at Abbeyknockmoy on February 1 last and arresting him after he failed a test for cannabis. The sample was subsequently analysed and this confirmed the result of the roadside test.
His solicitor pleaded that her client used cannabis to help him sleep. He had used the drug on the evening he was stopped which was why he had such a high reading, she explained.
The defence pleaded that Walsh had co-operated fully with Garda Hallinan and was pleading guilty at the first opportunity.
She was pleading for leniency as her client was travelling to Australia next April, where he had been accepted in a culinary school. If he was serving a driving disqualification when he was applying for his visa there could be a problem for him.
On the matter of the no-insurance charge the defence pleaded that he was driving someone else’s car when stopped and thought it had open insurance cover.
Judge Faughnan said he understood the defendant’s predicament but the problem was drug driving carried a minimum of a one-year driving ban.
He said the best way around this was, as Walsh was going to Australia in April, that he would postpone imposing the ban until April which would get him around any visa problem.
A fine of €350 was also imposed and all other matters were taken into consideration.
