Former nightclub owner Frank Shortt was disqualified from driving for two years yesterday for drink-driving.
In conclusion of a case contested in the District Court in Donegal for more than two years, 70-year old Shortt of Old Rectory, Clar, Redcastle, appeared at Buncrana District Court where he was also fined €450 for the offence on August 1st, 2003.
The court heard that Shortt, who was awarded €1.9 million in October after being wrongfully jailed in 1995 for 27 months on charges of allowing drugs to be sold at his Point Inn nightclub, was nearly three times over the legal limit. A breath sample showed a reading of 96mg alcohol to 100ml of breath.
Judge John O'Donnell had adjourned the case until yesterday to consider a number of submissions made by the defendant's legal team.
In an earlier hearing, the court heard that Shortt was arrested by Garda Paul Doherty on the evening in question in Moville, Co Donegal. He told the court he had been in the town buying groceries and had a pint of beer in a local pub. When pressed by the prosecution, he said he may have had two pints.
Shortt denied being inside his car when the arresting garda approached, and he denied his speech was slurred or his eyes bloodshot. The defendant also said the arresting officer was in plain clothes, not in uniform.
He told the court he said to the arresting officer, "Paul, I take it, this is about what is going on in the High Court in Dublin."
He said Garda Doherty replied "That's right, it's payback time."
This version of events was rejected by Supt Vincent O'Brien who put it to Shortt that he was so intoxicated on the date in question that what he was now telling the court was "a complete figment of imagination".
Shortt said, "I'm under oath, I've never perjured myself in my life." Also in the earlier hearing, Supt O'Brien asked the defendant how a reading of 96mg alcohol to 100ml of breath could result from two pints of beer. "I put it to you that you consumed a hell of a lot more than two pints," he said.
"No, I don't believe I did," said Shortt.
The defendant also said he was driven first to the local Garda station in Moville, then on to Burnfoot and then to Buncrana. This was rejected by the prosecution, who asked why gardaí would undertake such a detour when the Intoxilyzer machine was in Buncrana. The prosecution said the defendant was taken directly to Buncrana.
At Buncrana District Court yesterday, Judge O'Donnell said both the defence and the prosecution's accounts of the events were "totally irreconcilable".
Bail in the event of an appeal was fixed.