Ennis motorist 67 times over legal limit snorted cocaine in front of garda

Gordon Deegan

A 30-year-old Ennis man, ‘out of his mind’ on cocaine and in a state of undress in his parked car, reached for a bag of cocaine and snorted from it in the presence of a garda, a court has heard.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett imposed a four-month prison term and imposed a four-year driving ban on Shane McCarthy.

Results from the Medical Bureau of Road Safety found that McCarthy was 67 times over the legal limit for cocaine while in charge of a motor vehicle on March 30th last year at Magowna, Inch outside Ennis, Co Clare.

Judge Alec Gabbett said: “This is the highest reading I have ever come across.”

McCarthy of Shanacloon, Shanballa, Lahinch Road, Ennis, pleaded guilty to the ‘drug' road traffic charge where the reading showed that the concentration of Benzoylecgonine (cocaine) in his blood was at 3,346 ng/ml on March 30th, 2025.

McCarthy pleaded guilty to a separate charge of frustrating a garda prosecution by reaching into the centre console of his vehicle for a small bag of cocaine and sniffed a quantity of it up his nose in the presence of garda Dermot O’Rourke at the same location on the same date.

In evidence, garda O’Rourke told the court that he received a report of a car acting suspiciously and on arrival at a gate at Magowna, Inch found McCarthy in a state of undress seated in the front of his parked car “and acting very erratically”.

Garda O’Rourke said that McCarthy failed a roadside drug test for cocaine and while waiting for garda transport to bring him to Ennis Garda Station reached for the bag of cocaine and sniffed from it.

Solicitor Daragh Hassett said that his client “was out of his mind” on cocaine at the time.

Hassett said that in a separate case involving McCarthy, Judge Gabbett has remarked that he had the worst cocaine habit he had ever come across.

Judge Gabbett said that the evidence heard has been proven by this.

Hassett said that McCarthy “was out of control at this time, cocaine has ruined his life, decimated his family relations but his wife has stood by him”.

He said that the evidence shows how desperate McCarthy was that he would reach down and snort cocaine in front of a garda.

In a separate case where McCarthy is awaiting sentence, he has pleaded guilty to sending four lewd images of himself to his then addiction counsellor on May 5th last year.

McCarthy has pleaded guilty to masturbating in a public place at Silvergrove, Ballybeg, Ennis on August 31st last year and the possession of cocaine on the same date at Ennis Garda Station.

McCarthy is also before the court where he is charged with masturbating in a public place on December 18th last at Ballyalla Lake on the northern outskirts of Ennis.

Referring to those matters, Hassett said that McCarthy has featured in the national newspapers and has been ostracised in the community because of other matters that are ongoing.

Hassett said that the good news is that McCarthy has not taken any substance since before Christmas and is going extremely well "and we are awaiting a report from a clinical psychologist".

Hassett said that if there was ever the case that demonstrates the evil of cocaine this is it.

He said that in relation to the other case before the court, McCarthy’s children have been affected because their classmates have read online about their Dad in court.

Judge Gabbett said: “That is unfortunate but for better or worse it is what it is."

Hassett told Judge Gabbett that deep down McCarthy “is very glad that you have a grasp of his situation and for the first time in many years he is seeing things clearly and knows that he has to turn things around”.

Judge Gabett imposed a three-month prison term for the cocaine reading charge and banned McCarthy driving for one year and for frustrating the garda prosecution charge by snorting the cocaine imposed a four-year driving ban and a consecutive one-month prison term.

Mr Hassett asked that the prison terms be suspended and Judge Gabbett refused in view of the high cocaine reading. Judge Gabbett fixed recognisance in the event of an appeal.