Offaly motorist with 'astronomical' drug level defied driving ban

A BANNED motorist who was caught driving his child to the dentist had what Judge Andrew Cody called an “astronomical” amount of cocaine in his system.

Osvaldas Giedraitis (32), Esker Summer Road, Tullamore, admitted drug driving, driving without insurance and having no licence on February 26 last on the N52 at Gormagh, Tullamore.

Sergeant James O'Sullivan told the court that Mr Giedraitis was stopped at a checkpoint at 11.25am on that date and after he failed a breath test, it was also discovered that he was already disqualified from driving.

Analysis of his sample showed that he had more than six times the permitted level of benzoylecgonine, a cocaine derivative, 319.9ng per millilitre, where the limit is 50.

Sergeant O'Sullivan said Mr Giedraitis had been banned from driving for six years the previous May for having no insurance and he had also received a six-month suspended sentence.

Judge Cody noted that the drug driving offence would trigger the activation of that prison sentence and Sergeant O'Sullivan said there had been two other convictions for having no insurance with bans of four and two years.

Judge Cody asked defending solicitor Donal Farrelly: “How do you come back from that? With a record like that?”

Mr Farrelly said the accused was a father of five children aged between four-and-a-half and 18 and he worked in Mountrath.

His partner did not drive and his employer, who wrote a letter to the court on his behalf, valued him so much that he paid a co-worker to drive him to his job.

“He would be an enormous loss to me at the moment as good people are very hard to find,” the employer's letter said.

Mr Farrelly described Mr Giedraitis as the sole breadwinner in his house and he had been driving one of his children to an emergency dental appointment when he was stopped.

Asking Judge Cody not to jail him, he said his client knew he had made a dreadful mistake and being in prison would be an enormous loss to his family.

He had been driving his own car at the time and he “took a chance” because it was an emergency situation.

Judge Cody said the accused was facing a six-month sentence and he was left with no option but to impose a sentence.

He imposed a three-month sentence for having no insurance and disqualified the man for 10 years.

Another ban of one year was imposed for the drug driving offence, along with a fine of €100, plus a third disqualification of two years for having no licence, plus a €100 fine.

He fixed recognisances for an appeal and said he would remand Mr Giedraitis in custody to deal with the matter of the sentence which was being triggered.

Mr Farrelly asked that he be given bail on that matter and Judge Cody then decided to remand the accused on his own bond of €500 to appear in court again this Wednesday, October 19.