A man from Manulla was before Castlebar District Court on Wednesday for allegedly completing doughnuts on the road outside the Derrinumera dump and causing an obstruction to traffic.
On March 8 2009 around 1.15am, the weekend of the Mayo Stages Rally, a garda reserve who was travelling to work noticed 40 to 50 cars parked near the landfill site where about 100 bystanders were also present. The garda reserve noticed the car belonging to David Gormley, Manulla, Castlebar, was performing doughnuts, but the garda reserve could not see who was driving the car. Cars coming from Newport had to turn around as they could not continue on the road due to the obstruction. Gardaí arrived at the scene and the crowd dispersed. At 5.05am in Tesco car park, Castlebar, Gormley was stopped by Garda Ray Guilfoyle.
The defendant told the court that he was at the dump that night but was not performing doughnuts, and said that there was a car there that was the same as his at the time of the incident. Gormley also said that he lent his car that night to another person.
Judge Mary Devins said that if the car was lent to someone else that night the defence might want to rebut the claims if he sees fit and adjourned the matter to November 18.
