A 79-year-old man has vowed to stay off the road for the rest of his life after being caught drink driving last month.
Daniel McCann of Moorlough Road, Lisnaskea appeared before Monday’s sitting of Enniskillen Magistrates Court charged with drink driving and having no driving licence.
The court heard that at 10pm on November 11th, police in Lisnaskea were called to investigate a suspected drink driver behind the wheel of a silver Seat Leon.
The car was seen by a member of the public at Market Yard and was then observed on police CCTV driving past the station and then onto the wrong side of the road.
The driver was identified as McCann and the vehicle was later discovered outside the defendant’s home.
Aware that it was a cold night, the police noted that the car was free of frost, indicating that it had been driven recently. McCann answered the door and was observed clearly swaying back and forth.
He told police that he had been drinking but denied driving, saying he had asked someone to drive his car home for him but couldn’t recall who that was.
McCann was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and conveyed to Enniskillen police station where a further evidential test conducted returned a reading of 54 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath.
Defence solicitor Myles McManus told the court that his client had since handed the car over to his grandson and never intends to drive again. He added that McCann didn’t hold a licence as he hadn’t re-sat his driving test following his last conviction.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said the case was aggravated by a number of previous convictions for similar behaviour although the last of these had occurred in 2009. He noted McCann’s “clear indication not to do this again”.
McCann was handed a four month prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was also disqualified for five years until retested and fined £200.
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