{"id":141666,"date":"2025-10-24T00:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T00:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/141666\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T00:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T00:40:07","slug":"carndonagh-man-handed-driving-disqualification-following-reckless-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/141666\/","title":{"rendered":"Carndonagh man handed driving disqualification following reckless pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young Carndonagh man has been banned from driving for two years after failing to stop for garda\u00ed and driving through a stop sign during a high-speed pursuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Declan Fennelly, aged 24, of 12 Abbotts Wood, Carndonagh, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving when he appeared before Carndonagh District Court, sitting in Buncrana Courthouse.<\/p>\n

Defence solicitor Ciaran MacLochlainn asked Judge Monika Leech to reduce the charge to careless driving, which does not carry a mandatory driving ban.<\/p>\n

Mr MacLochlainn said his client had simply \u201cpanicked and took off\u201d after he saw the blue lights of the patrol car behind him.<\/p>\n

However, after hearing the evidence, Judge Leech said Mr Fennelly\u2019s driving bore \u201call the hallmarks\u201d of dangerous driving, and she refused to reduce the charge, imposing a two-year ban.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting the case, Sergeant Conor Mulkerns outlined the evidence. He told the court how Sgt Michael Devlin had been on mobile patrol during the early hours of Sunday, October 20, 2024, when the offence was committed.<\/p>\n

At 1.50am that morning, Sgt Devlin observed a 2013-registered red Ford Focus in a car park off the Ballyloskey Road, Carndonagh.<\/p>\n

Upon seeing the patrol car, the vehicle immediately took off at speed. Sgt Devlin activated the blue lights of the patrol car, but the Focus failed to stop and drove through a stop sign before turning left onto the R240 main road.<\/p>\n

The court heard how Sgt Devlin was unable to close on the fleeing vehicle due to excessive speed, even though the patrol car was travelling at speeds in excess of 100 kilometres per hour at the time.<\/p>\n

The Ford Focus subsequently turned into a housing estate, and the driver ran from the car, abandoning it with its lights still on, before entering a property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subsequent investigations were carried out, and Mr Fennelley was identified as the driver. He made full admissions after being spoken to by the guards.<\/p>\n

Sgt Mulkerns revealed how the accused had no previous convictions.<\/p>\n

Solicitor MacLochlainn told Judge Leech that Mr Fennelly, who was present in court with his father, had \u201cpanicked\u201d on the night in question.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a young, single man; he\u2019s 24 years of age, and he\u2019s a groundworker by occupation. He has no previous convictions and no penalty points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe fully cooperated with the guards after he was apprehended. He panicked when he saw the blue lights of the patrol car, and he took off at speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis happened at 2 o\u2019clock in the morning, when the roads were very quiet. He just panicked when he saw the guards coming after him,\u201d Mr MacLochlainn added.<\/p>\n

The defence solicitor further told the judge that his client had completed the prosocial driving education course following the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt cost him \u20ac250 to partake in the course and they issued him a certificate afterwards. He has received a very good report.\u201d<\/p>\n

After listening to the evidence and mitigation put forward, Judge Leech said she could not reduce the charge of dangerous driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI note that this gentleman has completed this course, so I\u2019m going to leave the fine low as a result. However, the court\u2019s primary concern is to determine whether or not this amounts to an act of dangerous driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, certainly, it far exceeds the level required for driving without due care and attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge added: \u201cThe evidence is very clear that he made the decision to fail to stop upon seeing the gardai, who were driving themselves in excess of 100kph and couldn\u2019t catch up with the accused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis act of driving far exceeds the threshold, and it has all the hallmarks of an act of dangerous driving; therefore, I cannot reduce the charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then imposed the mandatory disqualification period of two years for a first offence under Section 53.<\/p>\n

However, she did reduce the fine in the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do commend him for taking steps. He has been very proactive in terms of anticipating the court\u2019s disapproval of his actions, and he has engaged in a course that the court would have sent him on in any event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI note that that has cost him \u20ac250, so I\u2019m going to leave the fine at \u20ac150, which may be deemed low in the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Leech said she hoped the young Carn man had learned his lesson. She indicated that she may have been open to reducing the charge if Mr Fennelly had pulled over for the guards that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he had stopped, but he didn\u2019t, and that is to his detriment. And I think he will have learned this very salutary lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carndonagh man handed driving disqualification following reckless pursuit was last modified: October 23rd, 2025 by Staff Writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young Carndonagh man has been banned from driving for two years after failing to stop for garda\u00ed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-141666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}