A LOCAL judge has said the breath reading of a man stopped while drink driving in Enniskillen at the weekend was one of the highest he has ever encountered.
Adrian Tomczyk (26) of Castlebalfour Road, Lisnaskea, had trouble speaking and struggled to get out of his car when he was stopped by police on the Wellington Road in the early hours of Sunday morning, October 6th.
Shortly before 5am, police saw a Volkswagen Scirocco coming out from the Derrychara Road and driving towards Gaol Square. The car was driving at speed and in an erratic manner. The officers followed the car to the Wellington Road, where it was veering between lanes and crossing the central white line.
The officers put on their patrol lights and signalled for the car to stop. The car stopped in the middle of the road, between two lanes.
When the officers spoke with Tomczyk, the driver, they noticed a smell of alcohol. The defendant’s speech was slurred and he had trouble forming a sentence. When they asked him to get out of the car he did so with difficulty, holding on to the steering wheel and the door to steady himself.
When arrested, Tomczyk returned an evidential reading of 130 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath, just under four times the legal limit of 35 micrograms.
Defence solicitor Michael Fahy said Tomczyk’s reading had been “extremely high”, more than three-and-a-half times the limit. He said the defendant had been remanded in custody on Sunday night as he had been remanded after telling police he intended to return to Poland this week. Mr Fahy said Tomczyk intended travelling to Poland on Friday for a few weeks, which he had told police.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan said Tomczyk’s reading had been on of the highest he had had to deal with, and the defendant had posed a real risk to other road users, not withstanding the time of night he was driving.
Judge Ranaghan fined Tomczyk, who had no previous convictions, £250, and disqualified him from driving for two years.
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