A MAN arrested for suspected drink driving after allegedly being seen by a garda jumping into the back seat of a car while his passenger got into the driver's seat has lost a High Court bid to overturn his District Court conviction for refusing to provide two breath specimens.
Jonathan Finnegan, Bawnlea Drive, Tallaght, Co Dublin, was convicted on January 11th, 2007, of refusing to provide two specimens of his breath under the Road Traffic Act 1994.
He had argued that he was entitled to refuse because, he claimed, he was not the driver of the car. His girlfriend, Lucille Collins, had told gardaí and the District Court she was the driver of the car.
The High Court was subsequently asked to clarify legal points in the case as to whether the garda request for breath specimens was lawful when the District Court had not found as a fact that Mr Finnegan was driving the car.
In her judgment yesterday, Ms Justice Maureen Clark ruled the garda request to Mr Finnegan to provide breath specimens was lawfully made, and Mr Finnegan was not entitled to challenge the validity of his arrest on grounds of lack of proof of his driving the car.
She said the District Court judge was entitled to convict Mr Finnegan for failing to provide two breath specimens without finding as a fact that Mr Finnegan was actually driving the car.
The District Court judge was entitled to hold that driving a vehicle was not a prerequisite to a conviction for refusing, without a good and substantial reason, to provide a breath specimen.
She said the District Court judge, having heard the evidence of Mr Finnegan and his passenger, said he had a doubt Mr Finnegan was driving the car that night, and it followed the prosecution had not proved Mr Finnegan was driving. The trial judge had not, as Mr Finnegan had claimed, found as a fact Mr Finnegan was not driving.
On the application of Sunniva McDonagh SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, the judge awarded costs to the DPP.
