{"id":410804,"date":"2026-04-21T23:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T23:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410804\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T23:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T23:19:09","slug":"teacher-ended-up-in-car-chase-with-gardai-after-unwittingly-eating-cannabis-laced-cake-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/410804\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher ended up in car chase with garda\u00ed after \u2018unwittingly\u2019 eating cannabis-laced cake \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A music teacher who said she unwittingly ate a cannabis-laced cake and ended up in a Garda<\/a> pursuit, during which she drove in reverse for 800m on the wrong side of a Dublin<\/a> road, has been fined \u20ac700 and banned from driving. <\/p>\n

Marta Burns (47), of The Downs, Alderbrook, Ashbourne, Co Meath<\/a>, mistook Garda members for thieves when they approached her car on Emmet Road, Dublin 8 at around midnight on April 29th last. <\/p>\n

She \u201ctook off\u201d at speed and called 999 to report a crime when they gave chase, Dublin District Court heard.<\/p>\n

Sgt James Ward outlined the facts of the case after Burns pleaded guilty to dangerous driving with cannabis in her system. <\/p>\n

He said local drug unit officers were on patrol and saw Burns\u2019 car parked at the Emmet Road-Spa Road junction, where she was engaging with an unknown woman.<\/p>\n

The garda\u00ed activated their blue lights and Garda Conor Conway and another officer approached Burns, who was in the car with her son, and identified themselves with their official badges.<\/p>\n

She refused to engage with the officers and \u201cthen placed her vehicle into reverse\u201d and proceeded up Spa Road before going on to St Vincent Street West. <\/p>\n

Burns then sped off from garda\u00ed, took a right onto Emmet Road, reached the junction of Tyrconnell Road before stopping. The garda\u00ed again exited their vehicle and attempted to open her car door.<\/p>\n

However, Burns \u201cproceeded to reverse the vehicle back up Emmet Road on the wrong side of the road\u201d with oncoming traffic approaching. She continued reversing for about 800m and collided with an occupied vehicle, but did not remain at the scene.<\/p>\n

She almost collided with a bin lorry and members of the public were standing at the bus stop where she came to a halt. <\/p>\n

Burns\u2019 defence counsel pleaded for leniency, saying the accused attended a party earlier and ate some cake she was not aware had cannabis in it. She said Burns formed an impression when garda\u00ed first approached her and drove off.<\/p>\n

When Burns got through to the emergency service call operator to report what she believed were thieves following her, she was told it was actually garda\u00ed pursuing her, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Burns was given a two-year driving ban and fined \u20ac700 by Judge Treasa Kelly, who noted the accused had given free music lessons and donated \u20ac60 to charities as part of a restorative justice programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A music teacher who said she unwittingly ate a cannabis-laced cake and ended up in a Garda pursuit,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[615,1346,61,60,15949,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-410804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-dublin","9":"tag-garda-siochana","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-meath","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}