Hearing a case in which Lithuanian man Modestas Kuprmas pleaded not guilty to having no insurance and driving a moped while drunk, it emerged that no one knew where the vehicle was.
The driver, who has three previous drink driving convictions from one weekend when he didn’t sober up, was given a six month suspended sentence when he failed to satisfy Judge Neilan.
The owner told the court he thought the Gardaí had seized the scooter but Gardaí say no such thing happened. Ironically Mr Kuprmas said he had been moving it on the night because of fears for its safety.
Garda Kelly told the court he had been in a patrol car when he saw the Lithuanian at Market Point where he lives at No 3 The Weir, driving the moped at 4.10am on January 18.
At that time he admitted he didn’t have any insurance and admitted the vehicle belonged to a friend.
In court he said he had not been driving, merely pushing it between apartment blocks, that it wasn’t actually drivable at the time. However the Garda disagreed, saying it was a well-lit area and the defendant, who called him “Enda” throughout the hearing, was known to him personally.
Giving evidence Mr Kuprmas said the scooter was broken down and wouldn’t have started anyway; however, he admitted the keys were in it, though he didn’t know who had put them there. The keys were necessary to move it, his friend said.
Judge Neilan expressed his incredulity that his friend had bought it for €200, left it at Mr Kuprmas’ house for a month and that the defendant had decided at 4.10am he was going to push it to his friend’s house a couple of kilometres away.
When his friend said in evidence that he’d heard it was “a troublesome area”, the judge questioned why he’d leave it for three minutes there.
Mr Kuprmas’ friend said he thought the bike had been ‘arrested’ with his friend, though he did still have the key. He said he had gone to the Garda Station and had been told to bring his documents to get it back but there is currently no trace of it.
Mr Kuprmas was disqualified from driving for 10 years at the time of the offence, following his conviction having been caught drink-driving three times in one weekend.
Mr Louis Kiernan said his client had no intention of being on the road and was simply doing his friend a favour.
Judge Neilan said he would extend no leniency following a plea of not guilty and added that the defendant and his friend had both lied. “The prosecution was overwhelming in the extreme,” he said.
The case was adjourned to June to allow Mr Kuprmas finish paying fines from his previous conviction. He was also ordered to pay a fine of €5,000 and was disqualified from driving for 15 years.
