A BALLYKINLAR man with one of the worst criminal records in County Down has been jailed for two years.
Samuel Robinson was sentenced at Downpatrick Crown Court for a series of motoring offences.
During last Thursday’s hearing it was revealed the 40 year-old father-of-two had 256 court convictions, including 139 for road traffic offences.
His latest brushes with the law occurred in July and September when he was caught driving while disqualified on three occasions.
The first occurred in the early hours of July 7 when police received reports of a car being driven erratically in the Killard area, near Ballyhornan.
As they neared a bend on the Killard Road at approximately 4.30am, they were confronted by Robin-son driving a Ford Escort on the wrong side of the road with the headlights switched off.
Robinson tried to drive away from the scene, but he was arrested by police and taken to Downpatrick PSNI station. In addition to driving while disqualified, he was charged with dangerous driving, not having insurance and failing to provide a breath sample.
Less than 24 hours later police again came upon Robinson driving his father’s Ford Fusion car at high speed in the Killard area. As he tried to reverse away a policeman was pinned between the back of Robinson’s car and a hedge.
This time he was also charged with taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent and not having insurance.
On September 30 Robinson was found behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Tigra and was arrested for dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and not having insurance .
At Thursday’s court a defence barrister said Robinson, of Commons Road, suffered from a personality disorder, but was waiving his right to a pre-sentence report because he wanted to have the matters dealt with quickly.
The barrister said Robinson had been living in Killard at the time of the offences and had been under pressure because his parents suffered from dementia and were in a nursing home.
“This was the perfect storm. Things completely and utterly got to him and he started drinking again,” the barrister remarked. “Drink has been the curse of his life.”
The lawyer accepted that Robinson had a poor record. “No ifs and buts, it’s an absolute disgrace. As much as he can he apologises in court today.”
Sentencing Robinson, Judge David Smyth QC told him: “Your record is appalling.”
In addition to the jail sentence, Robinson was banned from driving for five years.