A man who, following a domestic disturbance, was observed driving in an erratic manner and when arrested for drink driving tried to escape from the garda car and was abusive towards gardaí, was before Judge Patrick Clyne at Ballina District Court on Tuesday.
On Christmas Day last year, Garda Caroline Taaffe was called to a disturbance at The Glebe housing estate in Ballina where Karl Bell, 1 Horan House, Abbey Street, Ballina, was directed to leave the area, which he did. Shortly after gardaí, who continued on their patrol, saw a silver Vauxhall Astra leave the estate quickly and drive around a dangerous bend on the other side of the road, across a continuous white line. Bell was driving this vehicle. The garda car lights and siren were activated and eventually the car stopped at The Glebe, Church Road.
The defendant was arrested, however upon arrival at Ballina Garda Station at 3.40am, Bell attempted to flee from the patrol car but was restrained. The defendant continued to be abusive and aggressive to gardaí throughout his detention.
A subsequent blood sample given by Bell showed 236mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Garda Taaffe also requested further analysis, due to the nature of the defendant’s behaviour, which showed that prescription drugs and cannabis were present in the defendant’s system.
Solicitor John Gordon said that the 29-year-old man from Northern Ireland, who has previous public order convictions, has been resident in Ballina since 2001 and has sought alcohol counselling.
For the drink driving charge, Judge Clyne convicted and fined the defendant €250 and disqualified him from driving for three years. For the dangerous driving charge the judge disqualified him for two years to run concurrent. The judge took into consideration the public order offences and the charge of having no tax on his vehicle.
