{"id":487595,"date":"2026-06-07T13:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T13:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487595\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T13:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T13:39:12","slug":"donegal-teen-banned-after-driving-while-eight-times-legal-drink-drive-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487595\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal teen banned after driving while eight times legal drink-drive limit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A young provisional driver in Donegal has been disqualified after being caught behind the while over eight times the legal drink-drive limit.<\/p>\n<p>Daithi Pearson was put off the road for three years when he appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/courts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ballyshannon District Court.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pearson, a 19-year-old of Cloigher, Barnesmore, Donegal Town, was before the court over an incident on January 1, 2026 at Rosscanlon, Ballintra.<\/p>\n<p>Garda Inspector Tony Byrne outlined to the court how Gardai saw a vehicle being driven \u201cin an erratic manner\u201d at 12.05am.<\/p>\n<p>Gardai stopped Pearson, who was later arrested and conveyed to Ballyshannon Garda Station.<\/p>\n<p>A sample showed a concentration of 78 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit for learner drivers is 9 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.<\/p>\n<p>Pearson was charged with an offence contrary to section 4 (4) (b) and 4 (5) of the Road Traffic Act, 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Gerry McGovern, Pearson\u2019s solicitor, said that his client, who is working as a carpenter, cooperated fully with Gardai and has pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/athletics\/entries-open-as-track-and-field-live-gets-set-for-donegal-return-637004\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Entries open as &#039;Track and Field Live&#039; gets set for Donegal return\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/entries-open-as-039-track-and-field-live-039-gets-set-for-donegal-return.jpeg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Entries open as 'Track and Field Live' gets set for Donegal return\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/lead-stories\/education-minister-to-contact-donegals-16-defective-block-schools-636996\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Education Minister to contact Donegal&#039;s 16 defective block schools\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/education-minister-to-contact-donegal-039-s-16-defective-block-schools.png\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Education Minister to contact Donegal's 16 defective block schools\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Judge \u00c9ite\u00e1in Cunningham fined Pearson \u20ac250 and allowed him four months to pay. Judge Cunningham also disqualified Pearson from driving for a period of three years.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/courts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Judge Cunningham<\/a> said: \u201cHe is a very young man for a conviction of that nature and obviously the disqualification that follows. I hope he takes stock of this type of offending behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young provisional driver in Donegal has been disqualified after being caught behind the while over eight times&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-487595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487595","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=487595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}