A Darkley man who crashed and abandoned his car on a dangerous bend near Newtownhamilton has appeared in court.
Appearing at Armagh Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 69-year-old Martin McParland, of Main Street, faced charges of failing to report an accident and leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position.
The public prosecutor told the court that on October 11, police received a number of reports from passing motorists of an abandoned vehicle on the A29 Keady Road between Darkley and Newtonhamilton.
The car was causing an obstruction in the road and motorists were concerned it would cause an accident.
Police attended the scene where a blue coloured Peugeot 3008 was abandoned, just past a bad bend on the road which had numerous black and white arrowed chevron signs indicating as much.
The car, which was extensively damaged, was locked. The road signs were also severely damaged, which Roads Service estimated would cost £1,684.42 to fix.
Whilst police were in attendance, a number of vehicles came around the bad bend and almost collided with the officers present.
Tyre marks were observed in the grass verge, which measured 167 feet; the point from where the vehicle came off the road to the point where the vehicle was at rest.
The court heard that McParland had remained at the scene for some 20 minutes before a passerby picked him up and took him home. He reportedly had a panic attack.
McParland was described in court as a “vulnerable older man who is financially struggling”.
That he was “the victim of the very serious fraud offence recently when he had a lot of money taken from him”.
District Judge Heaney fined him a total of £500, along with a £15 offender levy and gave him 26 weeks to pay.
