Portlaoise Court: Man in one-eyed car gets four-year ban
The case was heard at Portlaoise District Court. File image
A 36-YEAR-old Portlaoise man, who was driving around in a 2008 ‘jalopy’ of a car, was put off the road for four years when he appeared at the local district court last week.
Eric Delaney (36) from Cherrygrove, Knockmay, Portlaoise pleaded guilty to driving without insurance, failing to restrain a child in a vehicle, being an unaccompanied provisional driver, driving without lights and failing to display L plates on 5 February.
Garda Stephen O’Hanlon said that at 9.55am that morning, he stopped the defendant driving at Cherrygrove. He noted there was no insurance, tax or L plates displayed on the car and there was a nine-year-old girl in the back seat unrestrained.
When he checked around the car, he saw that the front headlights were not working. There was just one spotlight and the defendant did not produce his driving licence.
Judge Andrew Cody commented: “It was a case of súil amháin (one eye) looking at you.”
Gda O’Hanlon said that Mr Delaney had 24 previous convictions, 14 of which were road traffic offences. He had three previous convictions for no insurance and, while he had a learner permit, it had expired years ago.
Defence solicitor Barry Fitzgerald said that his client works in a local sawmill. He said: “The vehicle weas particularly bad with all sorts wrong with it. He’s aware he can’t get behind a wheel again and is asking the court to give him one last chance. You are very unlikely to see him in court again.”
Judge Cody said: “It was a 2008 jalopy. There were no working headlights and just one spotlight. To add to that, he had a nine-year old in the back seat with no seatbelt.”
He went on to convict Mr Delaney of having no insurance, fined him €500 and imposed a five-month sentence, suspended for three years and disqualified him from driving for four years. The same sentence was imposed on the defendant for driving without a driving licence.
For driving without lights Mr Delaney was fined €600 and disqualified from driving for four years. For failing to restrain a child in a vehicle, he was fined €300 and disqualified from driving for a concurrent four years. All other matters were taken into consideration.
