A caught doing more than twice the speed limit turned down a lonely cul de sac, and then tried to claim he hadn’t been driving the only car there.
Robert Reid (31), with an address on file at Teach Alaban, Castlegar on the Tuam Road, was convicted in his absence of multiple road traffic offences at Galway District Court after failing to turn up.
Garda Shane Lambe, the prosecuting Garda, said that he believed Reid was no longer in the jurisdiction, having gone to the UK.
Garda Lambe gave evidence that on June 5 of 2021, he was conducting a speed checkpoint on the Tuam Road when he clocked a car doing 117km/h in a 50km/hr zone.
The car turned down a side road, a cul de sac with only one home on it. Garda Lambe followed and found the car parked up outside a house, with the engine still warm.
Garda Lambe said that Reid eventually answered the door when he went to the house, but denied that he had been driving.
He also tried to claim that no-one ever drove that car, that it was always parked where the Garda found it.
Garda Lambe told the court that Reid was very drunk, and that he informed him that he would be impounding that car as there was no tax or insurance displayed.
The court heard that Reid had 30 previous convictions, the most recent of which were just over a week before this incident, when he received a two year disqualification from driving for road traffic offences.
Judge Mary Fahy convicted Reid in his absence of driving without insurance, driving without a licence, and failing to give information about who was driving.
He was fined a total of €500 for the no insurance and no licence conviction, and a bench warrant was issued for sentencing on the failure to provide information.
He was also disqualified from driving for a further two years, which Judge Fahy noted also applies in the UK.
