A man who, while in Mayo on holiday visiting his sister, stole and then crashed her car while drink driving, was given a three month suspended sentence and disqualified from driving for three years in Castlebar District Court this week.
The court was told that gardai responded to a road traffic accident on the Old Knock Road, Claremorris, at 8.15pm on the January 17, 2015. At the scene they found Donatas Ribckas with an address at 16 Crosswell Street, Norfolk in the UK, who was the driver one car, and arrested him on suspicion of drink driving. He was brought to Castlebar Garda Station where he gave a breath sample that returned a reading of 87mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath.
Later that night Ribckas’ sister called into the station and reported her car stolen. On Sunday January 18 gardai stopped and arrested Ribckas at Knock Airport as he attempted to head back to the UK.
In court on Tuesday, Ribckas pleaded guilty to all charges against him. His solicitor, Ms Cathy McDarby, told the court that her client was 30-year-old man who was living and working in the UK. He had come to Ireland on holiday to spent time with his sister. He had been drinking and stupidly took his sister’s car without permission to go get fuel for his lighter from the shop and ended up crashing it.
Judge James Faughnan convicted Ribckas of drink driving and fined him €300 and disqualified him from driving for three years. For the unauthorised taking of the vehicle he imposed a three month sentence which was suspended for 18 months.
