Forty-year driving ban for Swinford man

A 33-year-old man has been banned from driving for a total of 40 years at Castlebar District Court.
Kevin Cassidy of Flat 1, Lower Main Street, Swinford appeared before court charged with drink driving, dangerous driving, no driving licence and no insurance.
The court heard that on March 5, 2015 at 3.52am gardaí were driving on the N5 road in the direction of Ballyvary when a silver Audi went to overtake the patrol van while a car was coming in the opposite direction. Garda Gilmartin had to take evasive action to to prevent a collision.
Garda Gilmartin subsequently pulled over the car and knocked on the driver’s door in an attempt to get Cassidy to put down the window, but he failed to do so.
Cassidy was asked for his name and address but did not provide a coherent answer.
A urine test later showed that Mr Cassidy was over four times the legal driving limit, with a reading of 270mg of alcohol per 100ml of urine.

‘Alcohol fuelled time’
Defending solicitor John Geary said his client had came out of prison after a prolonged period three weeks before the incident and described it as an ‘alcohol fuelled time’.
Mr Geary told the judge that his client had been involved in a serious road traffic accident in March of this year and has ongoing difficulties as a result, adding that it would not be a good idea to send his client to prison.
The court heard that Cassidy had 53 previous convictions, 29 for road traffic matters. Cassidy had three previous drink driving convictions and the court was told that he had previously been banned from driving for 25 years by Longford District Court.
Cassidy was convicted for drink driving, receiving a six year driving disqualification and a €250 fine.
Convicted for dangerous driving, Cassidy was handed down an eleven month suspended prison sentence and disqualified for four years.
Judge John Lindsay disqualified him for a further 30 years for driving without insurance, handing him a six month suspend prison sentence to run consecutive. The no driving licence charge was taken into consideration.