A 19-year-old Keady motorist from near detected over the limit after a car was found to be obstructing a roundabout in the early hours of Sunday, February 2 this year in the Richhill area had been banned from driving for a year and fined £300.
Josh Lowey, with an address listed as Doohat Road, admitted driving with excess alcohol in breath and using an Audi A4 without insurance.
He appeared at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court where a prosecutor said that after 2am on February 2 a police patrol spotted a vehicle obstructing a roundabout at Richhill.
The car appeared to have been damaged in a single vehicle road traffic collision and the defendant was in the vicinity.
He failed a breath test.
A defence lawyer said the defendant and a friend were on a “night out” in Moy when the defendant made the “reckless decision” to drive his friend’s vehicle rather than wait for a taxi or a lift home. The friend was present in the car.
The lawyer said there had been a “slight collision” after the defendant slowed down at the roundabout and the car stalled which caused him to loose control and “veer into the roundabout”.
She said the defendant works for his father in a transport business and his dad was in the court public gallery and was “gravely disappointed” at the events.
She said the defendant, who had no record, is “very sorry for his actions”.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan told the defendant the incident would “cost you in the pocket going forward. Your insurance is going to go up dramatically”.
