The courts could not facilitate a system whereby drink-drivers could escape prosecution simply by avoiding service of blood and urine analysis certificates, a judge has held.
Judge Pat McCartan was commenting in a case in which a motorist appealed a fine and driving ban on the grounds that he obtained his blood alcohol analysis four months after arrest and a fortnight before his District Court hearing.
Kevin McGill (24), of Seaview Park, Portrane, Co Dublin, told the Circuit Court he would have challenged the Medical Bureau analysis but by the time he received it he had mislaid or lost his own sample.
Garda Tom Cahill told Ms Claire Loftus, for the State, that when he attempted to stop McGill's car at 3 a.m. near Grafton Street he reversed away from him and took off the wrong way down a number of one-way streets. Eventually he was stopped by mobile gardai.
McGill smelled of drink and was unsteady. He arrested him for drunken driving and he consented to a blood sample at Pearse Street Garda station. While the analysis certificate had been returned undelivered by An Post a note had been left at McGill's home telling him a registered letter awaited collection at the local post office.
Garda Cahill said he tried on a number of occasions to serve the certificate on McGill and eventually, by consent, served it on his mother.
Judge McCartan, confirming the fine and disqualification, said the prosecution had done everything possible to serve the certificate. He was not satisfied McGill had any intent of challenging the alcohol reading or having the sample tested.