Motorist narrowly avoids jail

Motorist narrowly avoids jail

19 January 2022

A 22 year-old man was told at Downpatrick Magistrates’ Court on Monday he was lucky to escape jail after he committed a string of motoring and drugs offences in Newcastle. 

Mark Sloan, of Ballykeel Court, Ballymartin, was banned from driving for 18 months, along with 12 months’ probation and 100 hours of community service.

He was also fined a total of £150 for the offences which took place on two separate occasions.

The court heard in the first incident on December 15, 2020, Sloan admitted driving while unfit through drugs on the Castlewellan Road in Newcastle, possession of cocaine, cannabis and Diazepam, two counts of assaulting police officers, disorderly behaviour, criminal damage of a police cell van, being an unaccompanied learner driver and not displaying L plates.

On the same road in May 30 last year, he was arrested for dangerous driving, not having insurance, failing to stop for police and aggravated vehicle taking.

A prosecutor said that in the first incident, police officers found Sloan slumped over in the driver’s seat of a BMW car.

When officers tried to rouse him, he became aggressive and attempted to headbutt two officers. He also spat at one officer and needed to be brought to the ground for handcuffs to be applied.

Officers found a fake £50 note on Sloan, as well as Diazepam, cocaine and cannabis.  After his arrest, he spat in a police cell van.

Police conducted an authorised pursuit on May 30 last year after they spotted the Sloan driving.

The prosecutor said that police clocked Sloan at nearly three times the speed limit and was driving on the wrong side. He continued driving until he turned into a cul-de-sac where he stalled his car.

Defence barrister Sean Doherty told an earlier hearing that spending a few weeks in custody had a “salutary impact on the young man, and left him a much chastened individual”.

Sentencing Sloan, District Judge Amanda Brady said that on his last appearance, her “instinct was that the defendant was heading for jail”.

But on reading the case files, she noted until the first offence, he had never been in trouble with the police.

She said she had been moved by the “compassionate” letter that Sloan’s mother sent to the court where she outlined that the root cause of his offending was drugs. 

“Be in doubt that the custody threshold has been met and you are very lucky that you have the support of your mother. This is your opportunity to work with Probation and sort yourself out.”