A Dunfanaghy man who pleaded guilty to a number of offences has been put off the road for four years and given a six month suspended jail sentence.
Paul Creamer appeared at Letterkenny District Court facing a number of charges including driving without insurance, failing to give information to Gardai and public order.
Garda Sergeant Maurice Doyle outlined a number of offences to the court.
He told how the accused overtook a Garda patrol car at Kill, Dunfanaghy just after 2am on December 20th, 2021.
The Garda car was being driven by Garda James Doran who could not keep up with the Honda Civic car.
The car was later located in a laneway and the driver took off again.
Garda Doran later approached the registered owner, Paul Creamer, who claimed the car was not on the road at all at the time but was at his mother’s house.
Garda Doran made a lawful demand for Creamer to produce an insurance certificate for the vehicle but the court was told no insurance was ever produced.
Creamer was also charged with a public order offence at Lower Main Street in Letterkenny at 3.20am on May 6th, 2024.
The court was told the 34-year-old was found to be drunk and shouting and acting in an aggressive manner to other members of the public and was challenging people to fist fights.
He was subsequently arrested and changed under Sections 4 and 6 of the Public Order Act.
Creamer, of Rockhill, Portnablagh, Dunfanaghy, has 24 previous convictions for a number of offences including driving without a license, driving without insurance and dangerous driving.
At the time of the incidents he was disqualified from driving, the court was told.
Solicitor for the accused, Mr Patsy Gallagher, said the reality was that the court was dealing with a young man who is an alcoholic and he accepts he will always be one.
Mr Gallagher said, however, that he was supported by his long-standing partner, who was helping through his recovery.
He added that alcohol has been Creamer’s vice but that he has been sober since these incidents.
He has completed a residential course at Whiteoaks Treatment Centre and is now in the step-down programme and attends weekly engagement meetings.
Mr Gallagher pleaded with Judge Liddy to deal with the sentence in an appropriate manner saying Creamer now understands he can’t drink and won’t drink in the future adding “He is sober now.”
Judge Liddy said he would have preferred to deal with the case with the benefit of a Probation Report but was told the report was not ready because of a major backlog in the services.
On the charge of driving without insurance, Creamer was jailed for six months but the sentence was suspended for one year and he was disqualified from driving for four years.
On the charge of failing to give information to Gardai, Creamer was fined €250 and was also fined a further €250 for the public order offence.
ENDS