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A DRIVER WHO had been disqualified for 15 years and led gardaí on a high-speed car chase has received a three-and-a-half-year sentence.
Garda Neil Plunkett said Ronald Lawlor, 36, of Main Street, Clongriffin, Dublin had 164 previous convictions, mainly for road traffic offences, including drink-driving and driving without insurance and a licence.
“I have a genuine fear that someday he may hurt somebody,” Plunkett told Marie Torrens BL, prosecuting.
He described how gardaí were called to a domestic incident in the Belmayne area of Dublin on 10 December, 2016, and arrived to find Lawlor sitting in his car.
Officers who knew Lawlor and were aware that he was disqualified from driving warned him not to drive, but Lawlor took off at speed.
Plunkett said during the chase he saw Lawlor throw a beer can out the window.
No lights
“To me it looked like he was actually drinking while driving the car but I didn’t actually see him drinking,” the garda told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court before he added that following his arrest Lawlor refused to provide a sample for alcohol testing.
At the sentence hearing, Plunkett said Lawlor drove around Belmayne at speeds of up to 140 km/h, without slowing down at junctions or roundabouts.
A number of motorists had to brake heavily to avoid colliding with Lawlor’s car, and at one point he drove the car the wrong way around a roundabout with no lights on.
Plunkett said at the junction of the R124 with Moyne Road, he parked his own unmarked patrol car in the centre of the road to prevent other vehicles coming into the junction but he had to reverse his car out of the way when Lawlor drove straight at him.
Lawlor continued driving, turning right around a roundabout on the wrong side with no lights on, and failed to stop at a junction at Balgriffin Cemetery.
Squad car damage
A garda car pulled up alongside to stop Lawlor, but he turned his car sharply to the right colliding with the side of the squad car, causing just under €3,000 worth of damage.
Shortly afterwards, two lanes of traffic were stopped at lights and Lawlor was forced to stop. He was arrested shortly afterwards.
Plunkett said that at the time of his arrest, Lawlor had nine separate driving disqualifications and was not permitted to drive for 15 years.
Lawlor pleaded guilty to endangerment on Moyne Road, dangerous driving on Grange Road, Baldoyle, damage to a garda patrol car and failing to provide a breath sample at Ballymun Garda Station on December 10, 2016.
Today, Judge Melanie Greally imposed a three-and-a-half-year sentence with the final 12 months suspended.
She ordered Lawlor to work with the Probation Service to address his alcohol misuse and if suitable, to complete a road safety programme.
She also imposed a further ten-year driving ban.
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We got lucky this time thankfully.
@Declan Gibney: may not be lucky next time.Time to stock up the freezer.Could be a big run in bread.
@Willie Marty: And toilet paper!
@Nickb: lol and vaseline
Lol certainly not although some lads on here might need the vaseline or bonjella for the lips after all the (mouthing) talking they do.
The weather forecasters are on high alert as they can’t pronounce Ciarán
@Patrick Presley: racist and silly comment
@SF Means Sh!t 4 Free: yes, wondering same as you, how is this racist?
Actually made me smile, I wonder how they’ll pronounce Ciarán over there…
Serious storm though
@Jerry LeFrog: actually just saw a YT video, they pronounce it correctly with a French twist “Keeranne”
@Ger Byrne: Uneducated. Should not be allowed anywhere near a device that can connect to the internet.
Eurostar what a great achievement and here we can’t put down one piece of railway track but only greenaways, not even a railways service to our busiest airport.
Oh look,we can comment on rainfall abroad; I’d say that innocuous enough.
@Marie Power: And you took the opportunity to write, “I’d say that innocuous enough.”
@James Carroll: I know James, apologies; it should have read:’ I’d say that’s innocuous etc’.
Hopefully it doesn’t do any damage to England or France
Hope the French are ok
I know that the north of France is getting the brunt, but we have gusts of up to 100km here in the south east. Windy enough, especially with a huge tree near us that, while the core may be structurally sound, it frequently loses heavy branches in high winds.
@David Stapleton: them branches can weigh a ton or more. Serious business.
@David Stapleton: well it is certainly good for business David – I am in the East and I have been trying to get various companies to come out and look at a tree that needs to be cut as it is a bit too near power/phone lines and might cause some harm next time. Numerous calls later to different companies and “we call out tomorrow, next week” etc and weeks later still waiting.
We need emergency flood relief pipes, sunk on to major river beds and overflow risers connected to them. Run it from flood areas, with major rivers and out to a slipway at the coast or too a reservoir or hydro battery for generating power at night.
Biden has called for a humanitarian pause in bombing Gaza after being heckled. The Man is no leader
Thankfully Michael D can still voice the truth Collective punishment of innocent men women and children in Gaza is an absolute violation of every moral political and humaniti and humanitarian laws A clear crime by an invading force into an already desperate country .Shame on Israel now the world can see this government for what it is
The usual nonsense from Limerick’s hanging judge (everything suspended) when dealing with hurler Pat Ryan. How, in God’s name does that pointless wig still have a job? What a waste of time, police resources, taxpayers’ money, and all to produce an empty, meaningless sentence. On and on it goes.
Wind power bonanza.
The Dutch super slow bike race faded out like a damp squib
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