Five months in prison and eight years’ disqualification
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A 23-YEAR-OLD Carlow man was recently sentenced to five months in prison for driving dangerously through Carlow.
At Carlow District Court, Ciaran Doyle of 5 Templeowen, Tullow, Carlow pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving without insurance or a valid licence and dangerous driving during an incident on 30 August 2025 at Wallsforge Roundabout, Chapelstown, Carlow and dangerous driving at Tullow Road, Carlow on the same day.
Garda Moulton passed the defendant going in the opposite direction and observed him travel at a high speed through a set of red lights. The car later crashed and once he got out of the car, he co-operated with gardaí.
“He took the chase – he accepts that, he panicked,” said defence solicitor Chris Hogan. He said his client was experiencing substance misuse issues and acknowledged that was what had caused him to be estranged from his young son. He said that Mr Doyle was trying to get into a treatment centre and had not come to the adverse attention of gardaí since.
Mr Doyle apologised for his behaviour.
Mr Hogan asked Judge Geraldine Carthy to “let him have his liberty” so that his client could attend a treatment centre.
Insp Shore outlined that Mr Doyle had been disqualified from driving for four years in May 2022 and had received a three-month prison sentence. He had two dangerous driving charges and missed two appointments with the probation services prior to the hearing.
Judge Carthy noted she “did try to afford this gentleman some opportunity to engage with the probation service”, but that unfortunately she did not have a probation report to guide sentencing. “There’s very little I can grab onto,” she said.
“One thing I can do is accept the plea of guilty,” said Judge Carthy, sentencing the defendant to five months in prison and disqualifying him from driving for eight years for driving without insurance and sentencing him to a concurrent five-month sentence and four-year disqualification for the dangerous driving charge.
Imposing the mandatory one-year disqualification for drink-driving and taking all the other charges into consideration, she said to Mr Doyle: “I really don’t want you coming back before the courts.”
Mr Hogan asked her to fix recognisance so that he could appeal the sentence, which Judge Carthy did for €500 own bond on the condition that Mr Doyle does not drive.
