Joiner banned after trailer hits parked car

Joiner Seamus Strathern (32), of Castle Street, Bellaghy, was fined £500 with a £15 offender levy and banned from driving for 18 months for driving while having consumed excess alcohol.

Bail of £400 was fixed to appeal the conviction and the defendant was granted permission to drive pending the appeal.

The car’s owner told the court that she had parked her car outside her cousin’s house at Ballyscullion Road, Bellaghy, when at around 7pm she heard a loud bang and went out to find a trailer had struck the car and pushed it into the garden wall.

She said the trailer was loaded with mattresses and other materials that had come from a vintage rally. The witness explained the defendant had left in a tractor and came back in a car and told her not to phone the police as he had a few beers and would pay for the damage.

In evidence, Strathern denied telling the witness he had taken beer at the vintage rally at the local GAC grounds. He said as he was driving home in the tractor the drawbar pin had come out and the trailer hit the car.

He said he had gone home after clearing up the damage and because he was “badly upset” was prevailed upon by others to have a few vodkas. He said he did not expect the police to call at the house as the lady “had seemed happy enough.” A PPS lawyer said the defendant provided a breath specimen which showed an alcohol reading of 81mgs.