A Letterkenny father-of-five has been jailed for 20 months and banned from driving for 10 years after pleading responsible to a litany of motoring offences.
James Mitchell appeared at Letterkenny District Courtroom the place he was charged with the offences whereas he was disqualified from driving..
The 42-year-old was additionally charged with a glut of theft offences dedicated throughout Letterkenny over a week-long interval.
The gadgets stolen embrace aftershave, skincare merchandise, razors, three cellphones, a set of earphones and powertools.
He was additionally charged with dealing with stolen items which primarily consisted of clothes.
The thefts came about between February 18th, 2020 and March tenth at quite a lot of outlets together with Magees Pharmacy, Dunnes Shops, Homebase, Tesco, TK Maxx and Boots Chemist.
Garda Sergeant Jim Collins outlined the assorted motoring fees in opposition to Mitchell.
The fees embrace ten for harmful driving at varied places together with Ballybofey, Letterkenny and Lifford.
Mitchell, of Windmill View in Letterkenny, was additionally charged with quite a few counts of driving with out insurance coverage or a legitimate driving license.
Sergeant Jim Collins gave a synopsis of the motoring fees in opposition to Mitchell.
On one event on April twenty eighth this yr he tried to evade Gardai in Lifford earlier than driving throughout Lifford bridge however encountered the PSNI on the opposite facet at Strabane and turned again evading Gardai and dashing away.
On one other event on Might sixth final Gardai pursued Mitchell throughout a number of townlands round Killygordon after he refused to cease.
Through the pursuit which lasted greater than 12 kilometres, the accused reached speeds of as much as 120 in 80kph zones forcing different vehicles ton take evasive motion as he crossed onto the improper facet of the street.
The court docket was informed that Mitchell has 44 earlier convictions together with 11 in Northern Eire for varied offences together with the unauthorised taking of a car and driving with out insurance coverage.
Addressing his spate of thefts first, solicitor for the accused, Mr Michael Shiel mentioned his consumer had simply break up along with his accomplice on the time and couldn’t clarify the rationale for such thefts.
He mentioned a number of the issues he took he would by no means use. “He’s by no means going to make use of skincare merchandise,” mentioned Mr Shiel.
Addressing his consumer’s motoring offences, Mr Shiel mentioned his consumer knew he shouldn’t be driving however he was and he holds his arms as much as the fees.
“He is aware of it was foolish however on the similar time he nonetheless did it. He has no clarification for it however he holds his arms up,” mentioned Mr Shiel.
He added that Mitchell utterly co-operated with Gardai when arrested and got here to court docket pleading responsible.
“We might have been right here for every week coping with them (if he hadn’t pleaded responsible),” added Mr Shiel.
He added that his consumer was a single man with 5 youngsters whom he sees commonly.
He has a superb work ethic and has labored repairing vehicles and in addition in a meat manufacturing facility.
He’s at the moment seeing a counsellor relating to the break-up of his relationship in addition to dealing with problems with alcohol and drug abuse.
Passing sentence Choose Eiteain Cunningham famous that a number of the offences had been dedicated whereas Mitchell was already out on bail dealing with different fees.
She sentenced him to a complete of 5 months in jail on 4 of the driving fees with all sentences to run consecutively which means he’ll serve 20 months in jail.
She additionally banned Mitchell from driving for ten years.
The court docket was informed that there are different issues earlier than the court docket and Choose Mitchell adjourned these issues again to August tenth by videolink.
She additionally took all the opposite fees together with the vary of thefts into consideration.
Father-of-five jailed and banned for glut of driving fees was final modified: July twenty fifth, 2023 by
