Disqualified and fined for failing drug sample test

A MOTORIST who failed a drug sample test was fined and disqualified from driving.

Larkin Mooney (23), Moorefield Grove, Clondalkin, appeared before Blanchardstown District Court facing road-traffic charges.

Garda Laura Tunney told the court that on April 23, 2024, the accused was stopped on Thomas Omer Way in Clondalkin in a Toyota Yaris, and lawful demand was made for motorist documents.

Mr Mooney subse-quently provided a sample but failed, and also failed to produce driving documents including insurance.

The court heard Mooney had two previous driving convictions, including a drug-driving offence and one-year disqualification in 2023.

Defence solicitor Ciaran MacLoughlin said his client acknowledged drug issues on the road but was not driving now, has a child, and was co-operative with gardai.

The court heard he is actively looking for work and was working in the car industry at the time of the offence.

Judge John Brennan was concerned that Mr Mooney had generated three offences in a “short period of time”, that he was disqualified when the latest offence occurred and was “not learning his lesson” particularly with his “partiality to drugs, especially cocaine.”

However, he noted the early guilty plea, that the defendant hasn’t come to garda attention since and that he is a father of a young child with limited means.

Judge Brennan disqualified Mr Mooney from driving for six months with a €200 fine and fined him €100 with 11 months to pay for no-documents.

Funded by the Local Courts Reporting Scheme