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20th Dec 2017

Dublin Resident’s Clever Excuse For Getting Out Of Drink Driving Charge Has Finally Been Dismissed

Darragh Berry

RTÉ is reporting that The Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to a drink-driving prosecution where the printout from the breathalyser test was not printed in Irish and English.

In a 2015 High Court case, it was ruled that the printout from the test that was given to 29-year-old Mihai Avadenai, from Swords in Co Dublin, was not deemed fit enough to be used as evidence considering it did not include the Irish language on the form. 

Avadenei was stopped by Gardaí driving at 80km/h in a 50km/h zone in 2014. When the printout was issued only in English, he said that the results were not a “duly completed statement” under road traffic legislation.

The decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal last year and The Supreme Court upheld the decision on Wednesday. 

While stating that the form should have contained the Irish language version, The Supreme Court believed that it was still fit to be used as evidence regardless. 

Over 1,000 drink driving charges have been on hold since the High Court ruling in 2015 where printouts were given to other drink driving suspects where both languages weren’t present.

Some of those drink driving charges even got thrown out at District Court level. 

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