A man who claimed he hadn’t been driving without insurance when seen by a garda, has been disqualified from driving for forty years.
Despite his not guilty plea, Damien Birchall of 4 Inis Glóra, Ballinalack was convicted of the road traffic offence.
Garda Colm Stenson said he had seen Birchall driving a blue Megane on the N4 at 6.30pm on September 2, 2009 just before he pulled into a driveway. He said he saw him get out of the car.
Birchall insisted that he had not been driving but a teenager had been. He said he had been in the yard when the garda came in.
Birchall, who is setting up his own car valeting business insisted that he hadn’t been in the car at all because he was already disqualified.
He said the teenager, who was working with him and is in trouble with social welfare, had jumped into the passenger seat when gardaí arrived.
Simon Hudson, who works with Birchall backed up his employer’s story, but admitted that he himself had a criminal history and said he “couldn’t tell” how many previous convictions he had.
Superintendent John Gantly showed a photo to the court indicating where Mr Hudson said he had viewed the event from and said the worker’s vision had been blocked.
Judge Coughlan said he preferred the evidence of gardaí and convicted the father of two, who has a number of previous convictions, for having no insurance and for drink driving.
Mr John Quinn said the 37-year-old was doing his best with his new business.
However, the judge said that driving while disqualified “showed great contempt of court to disobey a court order” and jailed him for five months, banning him from driving for 40 years.
He said Birchall could appeal the decision on his own surety of €100 and an independent surety of €2,000 to be approved by the court.
However, at the end of the day’s court, when Mr John Quinn said his client was on his way from the Garda station to lodge his appeal, Judge Coughlan refused to hear it.
“I’m gone, finished, finished,” he said as he left the bench.
