Uninsured, drunk driver’s action was ‘tantamount to having a gun’

A 32-year-old woman’s action in getting behind the wheel of a car while uninsured and drunk and at the same time having a previous conviction for drunken driving was “tantamount to having a gun,” a judge told a hearing at Trim District Court.

Viktoria Dotaite, with an address at Cluain Ri, Ashbourne appeared on a charge of driving without insurance at Dublin Road, Ashbourne on 11th August 2019.

Court presenter Sergeant Tom Mahon told the court that defendant had been involved in an accident and had failed a breath test at the scene. She had later recorded a breath test reading of 100/100.

She had been charged with drunken driving in 2018, had been convicted and disqualified from driving for two years. She was still disqualified when she was involved in the road incident in Ashbourne, he said.

Pleading for leniency, defence barrister James O’Brien said that his client had been living in Ireland for 12 years and had never been in trouble before the incident for which she was disqualified in 2018. He asked the judge to consider a suspended sentence “for a young mother trying to make her way in the world”. She was deeply embarrassed and upset at her situation.

Judge Miriam Walsh, speaking on Tuesday last week when she put the case back to Thursday’s court sitting, said: “I am absolutely blown away by the fact that she sat behind the wheel of a car while drunk. It is tantamount to having a gun.”

When the case resumed on Thursday last Mr O’Brien again pleaded with the judge not to jail his client.

The defendant was in tears when the judge asked her “How would you feel if your children for some reason crossed the path of a drunken driver?”

“This is the second time you got behind the wheel of a car while drunk. I despair of people coming before me with one charge of drunken driving but this is your second time. You got one chance and here is your barrister asking me to be benign towards you”.

The judge imposed fines totalling €1,200, disqualified her from driving for periods of six years and 10 years, and imposed sentences of three months imprisonment (suspended for six months), and six months (suspended for 12 months.

“If you have a drink problem, look in the mirror and go and get some help,” the judge said.