At approximately 3.15pm last Sunday, October 30, police received a report of a possible drink driver in Enniskillen, after two men who appeared to be drunk, getting into a southern registered car in Tesco carpark. 

A car was then stopped by police on the Irvinestown Road, which was being driven by Joey Perrill (20) of Ballybritt Heights in Galway city. They noticed his eyes were glazed, his speech was slurred and he was unsteady on his feet. When he was arrested and breathalysed he returned an evidential reading of 76 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath, twice the legal limit of 35 micrograms. 

When he was charged with drink driving, Perrill, who had been driving through Fermanagh en route from Sligo to Belfast, replied that he hadn’t realised he was over the limit. 

Perrill was remanded in custody until his hearing at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday, as he was from the South and did not have the cash on him to pay his police bail. 

District Judge John Meehan said he didn’t believe, given his high reading, that Perrill didn’t realise he was over the drink driving limit. Stating drink driving was “a highly dangerous act”, the judge fined Perrill £200 and disqualified him from driving for 18 months. He issued an immediate warrant of 10 days in default for the fine. That means, because Perrill if from another jurisdiction, he will have to spend 10 days in jail if cannot pay the fine upfront.