Enniskillen Court House
TWO men who were found drunk in a car on a rural south Fermanagh lane at two o’clock in the afternoon, with no memory of how they got there, have each been given a driving disqualification.
Diarmad Cormack (21) of Corevan, Blacklion and Willis Carlin (22) of Ardvarney, Glenfarne appeared at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Wednesday where they each pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to give information about the driver of a vehicle. Carlin also pleaded guilty to having no driving licence.
At around 2pm on June 4 last, police received reports from residents in the Cleenish Island area of a car parked at a lane way with two men inside, who had possibly been drinking. When officers arrived and located the black BMW, Cormack was sitting in the front passenger seat, while Carlin was sitting in the back. No one was in the driver’s seat and neither man provided police with details of who was driving the car. No witnesses saw who had been driving, and forensic tests did not locate an identifying DNA evidence on the steering wheel.
Both Cormack and Carlin, who was the registered owner of the car, failed preliminary breath tests. When taken to the station, Cormack returned a reading of 120 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath, while Carlin returned an evidential reading of 83 micrograms.
Defence solicitor for Cormack, Barry Lynam, said his client had been drinking since the previous night and didn’t “even know how he got into the car.” He said Cormack had an alcohol addiction, but was now receiving treatment at a centre in Galway.
Mr Lynam said Cormack had given a “no comment” interview to police, and had not told them who was driving, because he couldn’t recollect what had happened.
Defence solicitor for Carlin, Reggie Ferguson, said his client had a “sketchy” memory of what had happened, and had not had any further recollection since.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said the case was “unusual” and bizarre, and said the circumstances of “two drunk men in a car” without knowing how they got there were “cloaked in mystery.”
Judge Broderick disqualified Cormack from driving for one year and fined him a total of £300. He fined Carlin a total of £400 for both charges, and disqualified him from driving for one year.
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