A COUNTY Donegal youth worker has been banned from driving for a second time after being caught drunk at the wheel of his car.
Joseph Quinn, from Chestnut Grove in Letterkenny, was banned for another three years after being stopped by Gardai at Trimragh, Manorcunningham on November 4 last year.
His solicitor had contested the charge at Letterkenny District Court on the grounds of a time difference between Garda records and print-out from a breathalyser machine at Letterkenny Garda Station.
Garda Eamon Roarty, based in Ballyshannon, said he was on patrol on the Letterkenny to Lifford Road at 1am when his attention was drawn to a silver Ford Focus which was driving very slowly as it entered the dual carriageway driving towards Letterkenny.
“I observed the car for a period of time and the car was swaying from the road into hard shoulder and then into the overtaking lane,” said Garda Roarty.
“At one stage I believed he was going to hit the central reservation,” said the witness, who sounded his siren and instructed the driver to pull over.
Quinn, 37, was in the driver’s seat. Three other people were in the passenger seats and were drinking from beer cans, said Garda Roarty.
Quinn was taken from the car.
“He had to lean against the car to steady himself,” said the garda.
The youth worker, then based on the Port Road in Letterkenny with the Donegal Youth Services, was found to have 90 microgrammes of alcohol per 100ml of breath.
Quinn did not appear in court as he was in Galway. However his solicitor Frank Dorrian questioned the timings of the mandatory 20-minute period before the breath test was taken.
However Judge Paul Kelly dismissed this argument, saying all instruments for time “often disagree to a minor extent.”
The court was told that Quinn was convicted on 21st February 2008 of drunken driving. He had been disqualified from driving for three years and fined €600.
Banning Quinn from the road for another three years, Judge Kelly said: “It’s a pity he didn’t learn his lesson the first time around.”