Court - Uninsured driver panicked and took off at speed

A Polish national driving with no insurance who panicked when he saw a garda checkpoint and took off at speed has been fined and put off the road.

Pawel Janczak (21), 9 Balladine, Abbeyleix, was charged at the district court with dangerous driving, and having no insurance, at The Swan Road, Timahoe.

Inspector Maria Conway told the district court that at 11.40pm on November 13 last, the accused was driving a BMW when he came to a garda checkpoint at The Swan.

As he approached the checkpoint, he stopped the car, reversed and took off at speed. The gardaí followed and he drove at high speeds for about 5km to evade them.

He then drove on for another km before he was forced to stop due to road conditions. When stopped, he admitted that he had no insurance.

The accused had three previous convictions, including one for no insurance.

Defence, Mr Barry Fitzgerald admitted this was his client’s second conviction for no insurance, and he had apologised to gardaí at the scene.

Mr Fitzgerald said his client, a Polish national living in Abbeyleix for the last ten years, had been driving on the night to meet a friend. He is into cars and was doing the car up, taking it for a test drive.

The accused panicked when he saw the checkpoint and adrenalin took over, said defence, causing him to behave very erratically.

He was very remorseful at the scene, said Mr Fitzgerald, and had written a letter of apology to the gardaí.

He’s young man and his behaviour was foolish, concluded defence.

For dangerous driving, Judge John King convicted and fined the accused €300, and disqualified him from driving for two years.

For no insurance, he was fined €400 and disqualified for four years.