A Pettigo man who decided to drink beer after finishing work and was involved in a road traffic collision has been banned from driving for 18 months.

On August 2, 2022 police were tasked to attend a four-vehicle crash on Castlederg Road at around 5.30pm.

When they arrived at the scene they spoke to one of the drivers, Kevin McGoldrick (50), with an address of Loughderg Road, Pettigo, Co. Donegal and noticed his eyes were glazed and he smelt of intoxicating liquor.

McGoldrick failed a preliminary breath test before giving an evidential reading of 101mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath.

His barrister, Craig Patton accepted the reading was high but indicated that McGoldrick had indicated a guilty plea from the very beginning of proceedings.

Mr. Patton said in his 33 years of driving, McGoldrick did not have a blemish on his record and the defendant was "almost at a loss" as to why he decided to drink drive.

He explained how he was given the beer after finishing a job but could not "articulate" why he drank them on his way home which was a short distance away.

Mr. Patton added that McGoldrick did not have a drinking problem and was very apologetic for what he had done.

He asked the court to keep the driving ban to as minimum as possible and said McGoldrick had held his hands up from early on.

District Judge Steven Keown said it was "an extremely high reading" and a driver would not be in control of their car in any shape or form but would be in "the lap of the gods".

McGoldrick was disqualified from driving for 18 months and fined £300 for driving with excess alcohol in his breath.