COURTS: A man who failed to fit a silencer into his exhaust and who had a bald tyre on his vehicle has been fined at a sitting of Letterkenny District Court.
Ciaran Murphy, (21) of 4 Slieve Brac Park, Forkhill, Newry appeared at court in relation to the incident which occurred in June last year.
The incident occurred during the Donegal Rally International weekend – and the court heard how Gardaí pulled the defendant over at Bonagee, Letterkenny after noticing the vehicle had a bald tyre.
The noise of the car was also extremely loud, and on further inspection Gardaí found that a silencer had been removed from the exhaust of the White Sierra.
Solicitor for the defendant, Gareth McGrory told the court that his client accepted that the exhaust was extremely loud – but said the silencer had been removed when his client bought the vehicle.
Mr McGrory told the court, “My client is 21 years of age, and he lives with his parents in Newry, he sells electricity for Airtricity and earns around £200 pound per-week.
“He was aware that the tyre was borderline, and accepts the noise of the vehicle was extremely loud, but he tells me that he didn’t remove the silencer – and that’s the way the vehicle was when he bought it.”
Judge Paul Kelly slammed the defendant and asked him, ‘What was going in his head, why would you drive around at 1.30am making so much noise?”
The defendant responded by saying, “That was the way I got the car.”
Judge Kelly, “If you want to drive a car that sounds like a rally car, then maybe you should buy a rally car.”
Judge Paul Kelly handed the defendant two fines of €150 respectively.