Man who drunk and drove in Derry just hours after receiving a road ban for the same offence has been jailed for five months

A man who drunk and drove in Derry just hours after he had been banned from the roads for the same offence has been jailed for five months. Richard Barton, 53, has 166 previous convictions, 77 of which were for road traffic offences. At Derry Magistrates Court, Judge Barney McElholm also banned him from driving for 10 years. “The higher court encourages us to leave some one a chink of hope as it believes if you didn’t it would encourage them to go out and commit further offences,” said Judge McElholm. The prosecution said a member of the public contacted police after seeing Barton attempting to leave outside his sister’s home at Duddy’s Court at 7.15pm on January 27. When officers arrived at the scene, Barton was behind the wheel of the car and had ‘slurred speech, glazed eyes and there was a strong smell of intoxicating liquor’. He was unsteady on his feet when he got out of the car and had to be supported by police. Barton admitted driving whilst disqualified, drink driving and driving without insurance and apologised for his actions. Defence solicitor Seamus Quigley said: “It’s about as bad a case of drink driving as you can get. “It occurs hours after he was disqualified for drink driving and is made much worse by the fact he is over the limit again and he’s got a three month suspended sentence for starters. “At interview he stated before he went drinking he gave the keys of the car to his sister and said ‘that’s for your daughter after she passes her test.” Barton, of Dundooan Park in Coleraine, told police he had a bad day and went to his sister’s house and started drinking. “Witnesses describe how he staggers into the car and drives a short distance and then sits for four or five minutes until police arrive,” added the solicitor. Mr Quigley said it may have been the case that Barton only intended to sit in the car. Passing sentence Judge McElholm said it was Barton’s fifth conviction for drink driving and third since 2012. “He goes out that evening and does it again,” said the Judge. “No one knows what would have happened if he hadn’t driven into that kerb.”