A 59-year-old man found slumped over the steering wheel of a parked car with its hazard warning lights on had been drinking, Fermanagh Court has heard.
Patrick Joseph MacKenna, of Coragh, Kinawley, admitted being in charge of the Ford Focus after consuming excess alcohol and driving it without a licence.
He was fined £350 and banned from driving for 18 months.
A prosecutor told the court that on Sunday, May 4, police were on mobile patrol on the Belturbet Road at Derrylin. At approximately 1am they saw the Focus sitting on the side of the road, facing towards Derrylin, with its hazard warning lights on. MacKenna was sitting in the driver’s seat, slumped over the steering wheel. When the police stopped and approached the car, MacKenna got out and tried to lock it. He displayed signs of intoxication and was arrested. A sample of his blood produced an alcohol reading of 219 - 139 in excess of the legal limit of 80.
Defence solicitor Niall Bogue said MacKenna had left a friend home. He was in the process of doing a “good deed” but it was obviously highly ill-advised. At some point he decided he was not driving any further. He had only recently obtained a vehicle. He had a provisional driving licence and taken a number of lessons but had not passed the test.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said that while it was a case where MacKenna was drunk in charge of a vehicle: “It’s a very high reading and I have already expressed by concern about the circumstances leading up to the detection.”
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