A man who was banned from driving a week before causing €28,000 of damage after ramming into two cars has been jailed for four months and banned from getting behind the wheel for 14 years.
Chris McClafferty appeared before Letterkenny District Court charged with dangerous driving and other offences.
Gardai told the court that on St Patrick’s Day in 2016, they responded to a call that a car was driving at high speed and dangerously at Kilmacrennan Road in Letterkenny.
When approached by Gardai, McClafferty reversed into two cars and mounted a footpath causing €28,000 of damage.
McClafferty then tried to flee but was apprehended by Gardai.
Gardai Inspector Michael Harrison told the court that people on the scene who were caught up in traffic had been left shocked by the incident.
The accused was taken to Letterkenny Garda station but then used a metal button from his trousers to write his name on the wall of the Garda cell.
Inspector Harrison said painters had to be called into to renovate the cell at a cost of €450.
Solicitor for the accused, Mr Gordon Curley said his client admitted all the offences and had already paid €500 for the cost of damage to the cell.
He revealed how his client had served six weeks in Castelrea Prison for a criminal damage charge which somebody else had later admitted to and this had had a profound effect on him.
He added that his client, from 43 Brookfield Heights, Letterkenny, did not want to go back to prison and wanted to return to education to become a fitness instructor.
“He simply wants to put this behind him and does not want to go back to prison.
“He is big into his fitness and would like to go down the route of becoming a fitness instructor.
“I am asking that the case be possible be dealt with by way of suspended sentence,” pleaded Mr Curley.
However, Judge Paul Kelly said the fact was that McClafferty walked out of court a week before these offences having been banned following another serious driving incident.
He also asked if the two people whose cars had been written off in the incident had been compensated but was told there was no insurance cover on behalf of the accused.
Judge Kelly sentenced McClafferty to two months in jail for dangerous driving at Kilmacrennan Road and banned him from driving for five years.
He fined him a further €250 for failing to provide a breath specimen and disqualified from driving for four years.
He was also jailed for four months for not having insurance, not having a driving license and driving while disqualified.
All sentences are to run concurrently meaning McClafferty was jailed for a total of four months and banned from driving for 14 years.