A former Tyrone GAA doctor has been given a two-year driving ban after he drank six shots of whiskey in less than half an hour.
Imposing the ban as well as fines amounting to £550, District Judge Rosie Watters said it was clear 71-year-old James Peter Cassidy “has a problem with alcohol”.
Cassidy, from Killyman Road, Dungannon, a one-time doctor for Tyrone GAA and who practised in Dundalk before he was struck off, had earlier entered guilty pleas to four offences, all committed on November 9 this year, including driving while unfit, driving with neither a licence nor insurance and failing to provide a specimen.
The court heard that the manager of a restaurant in Lisburn alerted police after a customer “drank six measures of Jamesons whiskey in 25 minutes” and then got into a Mercedes C250 car.
A prosecuting lawyer said police were led to the car park of the Sprucefield shopping centre where officers found Cassidy sitting behind the wheel. Despite being asked, he failed to provide a specimen of breath.
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The court heard that Cassidy has previous criminal convictions including for drink driving in 2009 and conspiracy to commit forgery in 2014.
It related to attempts to alter the will of pub owner Catherine ‘Kitty’ Haughey between 2004 and 2007.
The 81-year-old, who owned Larkin’s pub in Forkhill in south Armagh, left cash, land and property worth £1.5 million on her death in 2004 but suspicions were raised when Ms Haughey’s will was changed two weeks before her death.
In 2014 Cassidy was handed an 18-month prison sentence which was suspended for three years and then in November 2018, he was struck off the medical register in the Republic over failings to comply with conditions attached to his registration, including to complete an alcohol awareness programme.
In court on Thursday, Cassidy’s defence solicitor conceded the driving offences are “pitiful behaviour, he recognises that”.
“He clearly has an alcohol problem but this was an extraordinary occurrence,” said the solicitor, revealing that while he is in receipt of the state pension of £600 per month, Cassidy “lost a significant amount of money in the financial crash of 2008, almost £1 million of investments completely wiped out”.
