A young man who rammed a busy off-license before going on a driving spree in which he hit a wall and another car has been jailed for two and half years.
Liam Boyle ended up upside down in a field after taking his mother’s car without her permission during the escapade in Letterkenny in May, 2022.
The 27-year-old father-of-one appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court on a range of charges including endangerment, criminal damage and dangerous driving which he pleaded guilty to.
Detective Garda Patrick McDermott outlined the bizarre series of events to the court.
He told how Mr Charlie McClafferty, the owner of the Carry Out off-license on Pearse Road in Letterkenny, saw a car driving up the wrong way of the street and then pulled a hand-brake turn into the car park outside his premises.
A young woman got out of the car and went into the off-license but Mr McClafferty went over to the driver and warned him he would call the Gardai if he drove the way he had again.
The man apologised and Mr McClafferty went into his premises.
However, CCTV footage shown to the court, then showed the driver of the Dasia car reversing through the front windows of the premises forcing customers to jump for cover.
The car then sped off.
The court was told that €4,255 in damage was caused to the front of the shop and €500 in damage was caused to stock but thankfully nobody was physically hurt.
A short time later, motorist Paul McFadden was driving at Windyhall in Letterkenny and had slowed down as he met another car but another car crashed into the back of him and sped off.
The car, a Dacia Duster being driven by Boyle, caused €8,500 in damage to Mr McFadden’s Nissan Pulser car and had to be written off.
A short distance away on the Kilmacrennan Road, the accused man’s sister was driving along and saw her mother Eileen Boyle’s car being driven by her brother.
The light was smashed and the license plate was hanging off.
Ms Boyle contacted her mother and she noticed the care was missing from outside their home at College Park and said Liam Boyle must stolen the keys and driven off.
Another woman, Brid Gallagher, arrived back from a funeral in Gortahork to find the front wall of her house had been damaged and Boyle later admitted crashing into it.
A short time later, a Paul Barkley told Gardai that he had been driving towards Meenaroy on the road to Fintown when he was overtaken by an SUV at 70MPH.
The car continued to travel on the wrong side of the road and was wavering, taking a corner on the wrong side of the road.
A statement read in court from Mr Barkley said that he had said to himself that if the driver had met another car coming in the opposite direction that it would have been “catastrophic.”
The car then appeared to strike a rock and overturned into a ditch on its roof.
The court was told there were three people in the car including a teenager, a woman with a swollen eye and the driver of the car who were all in shock.
The driver had a gash on his hand and was stuck in the car and was panicking as the Gardai and the emergency services arrived on the scene.
Detective McDermott said he arrived on the scene and saw Liam Boyle, who was unsteady on his feet, being attended to and he arrested him.
Prosecuting barrister, Ms Fíona Crawford, said Boyle was taken to Letterkenny Garda Station for questioning and made certain admissions.
However, referring to businessman Mr McClafferty he said “He’ll think twice about giving me cheek again” adding that the incident would now be a ‘Donegal Daily special.’
The court was told that Boyle, of College Park, Letterkenny, has no previous convictions.
His barrister, Mr Sean McGee, BL, outlined his client’s circumstances to the court saying he had lost father when he was just eight years old and had left school when he was just 16 years.
At 14 years he received serious injuries at the hands of a neighbour but said he did later hold down a number of jobs both in Donegal and in Dublin in construction and in factories.
Mr McGee said an incident to a family member in 2021 sparked a major change in Boyle which saw him drink heavily and take prescribed and unprescribed Xanax tablets.
On this particular occasion, he said he was not disputing the seriousness of the incident but said his client was intoxicated and that he just remembers getting into the car but denies any of his actions were premeditated or planned.
Mr McGee said Boyle was remorseful and thinks about what happens every day and recognised the fact that his actions were reckless and posed a serious risk to members of the public.
A probation report on Boyle “unsurprisingly” put him at a high risk of reoffending unless he addresses his risk factors.
A report from psychiatrist Dr Colin O’Donnell said it was not unusual for someone suffering from post traumatic stress disorder to self medicate.
“I have met him several times and has been making attempts but does have a long road ahead,” added Mr McGee.
He asked Judge John Aylmer to take into account his client’s guilty plea, his remorse, his apologies to the victims, his precious good work record, his previous good character, the fact that his actions were unpremeditated and the affect the traumas in his life had had on him.
Judge Aylmer said Boyle was before the court on a late plea of guilty to a number of serious charges, the most serious charge being endangerment by reversing his mother’s vehicle, which he had stolen, into a busy off licence premises where people were standing behind the window.
Judge Aylmer said the starting point for sentencing before mitigation was five years in prison.
In relation to the two criminal damage charges, he placed them at the mid-range point of offending warranting four years in prison as there was significant damage caused to the shop front.
Judge Aylmer said he placed the dangerous driving offences at the upper end of the scale warranting a sentence of six months in prison while the failing to report charges warranted three months in prison.
In mitigation, Judge Aylmer said Boyle had been cooperative as far as he could be as he was highly intoxicated at the time and had limited recollection of the incidents.
Boyle entered a guilty plea at a late stage, and the judge said while credit could be given, it would not be as much if it was an early plea.
He acknowledged there was an absence of previous convictions but referred to the period between 2016 and 2018 in which gardai had noted but said no convictions had arose out of that time.
The judge said Boyle was genuinely apologetic and remorseful and the incident occurred when he was in the grips of a serious addiction to alcohol and other substances.
Judge Aylmer said he had noted everything about Boyle’s past and a report which detailed he had experienced many very stressful events in his life.
The judge said the defendant had held employment for nine years before he suffered a serious relapse.
The court heard Boyle was assessed as being at a high risk of reoffending and the judge said there was a ‘very obvious need for rehabilitation’ and support to help Boyle deal with his addiction.
Judge Aylmer said he would try to encourage his rehabilitation when dealing with the matter.
The judge said he had applied appropriate credit to the sentences and he would reduce the sentence for endangerment to one of four years.
The criminal damage sentence was reduced to three years and two months.
The sentence for dangerous driving was reduced to five months on both charges, while the failing to remain charges were reduced to two and a half months on each charge.
All sentences are to run concurrently resulting in four years in prison.
However, in considering the suspension of a portion of the sentence, Judge Aylmer said it was important for Boyle to engage with probation and seek treatment for his addiction.
Judge Aylmer suspended the last 18 months of the four year sentence and ordered Boyle to enter into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
He was also ordered to completely abstain from alcohol and prescribed drugs, and engage with local mental health teams.
Boyle was also disqualified from driving for a period of six years.