A MAN who “flouted the law” on two occasions as he made high-speed escapes from Gardaí has been jailed for 15 months and banned from driving for15 years. Michael Fitzgerald (21) of Cloghnadromin, Limerick appeared before last week’s sitting of the local District Court on charges of dangerous driving and other road traffic offences arising out of high speed car chases on some of the city’s busiest roads where he drove on footpaths and collided with a parked car.
Judge Eugene O’Kelly was told that on May 12 last, Michael Fitzgerald was seen by gardaí driving on Collins Avenue while disqualified as a result of a previous court conviction. He narrowly avoided oncoming traffic as he sped along Childer’s Road to the Kilmallock Road roundabout and out the Old Cork Road.
Gardai stayed in pursuit until they reached Bohermore where they dropped the chase as they considered it a “considerable risk to both the public and the gardai”.
Two months later on July 4, he was seen driving a different car on John Street where he embarked on a “repeat of the previous incident”, mounting the footpaths and driving at high speed into heavily trafficked areas.
Unable to ascertain how he acquired the cars and taking his previous convictions into account, Judge O’Kelly said it was “no wonder this young man thinks he can get away with completing flouting the law”.
“However, this time his luck has ran out”, the judge said.
Defending solicitor John Herbert said his client was normally a “hard-working man who was never afraid to put his shoulder to the wheel” and that he “put his hands up after making an on the spot decision to flee”.
Judge O’Kelly said the problem was that he was “putting his hands to the wheel when he shouldn’t”.
Along with the 15 months prison sentence and the 15 year driving ban, Michael Fitzgerald was also fined a total of €750.
