Laois sulky driver became abusive after being told horse would be seized
Portlaoise Courthouse
A MAN who was driving a sulky gig while drunk was sentenced to carry out 40 hours of community service when he appeared before last week’s sitting of Portlaoise District Court.
At a previous sitting in the case, the court heard that at 10.15pm on 20 August last on the N80 between Stradbally and Portlaoise at Ballyclider, gardaí detected two sulky gigs being driven without lights or reflectors.
When one of the gigs was stopped and the driver told his horse was going to be seized, he became so abusive that he had to be arrested.
Arising from the matter, Patrick McInerney, 1 The Springs, Kilminchy pleaded guilty to being intoxicated and to engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour at the time.
Defending solicitor Josephine Fitzpatrick told the previous sitting that what had annoyed her client at the time was that he kept his horse in a nearby filed some 500 metres from where he was stopped and he did not take too kindly to being told that it and the gig was going to be seized.
When the case resumed last week, Judge Susan Fay was informed that Mr McInerney had carried out all the orders she had asked him to do – engaged with the probation services and took part in a community service assessment.
Noting his full engagement with the services, she went on to convict him of engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour and sentenced him to carry our 40 hours of community service in lieu of two months in prison and placed him on a 12-month probationary supervisory order for the other offence.
