Lee O’Brien jailed after endangerment and dangerous driving offences

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Lee O’Brien was jailed for three-and-a-half years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after a pursuit in Dublin city centre. He pleaded guilty to three counts of endangerment, one count of dangerous driving and one count of driving without insurance. The offences occurred on 9 January 2018. The proceedings were reported on 1 March 2019.

On 27 February 2019, Judge Melanie Greally described the incident as an “extremely serious episode of highly dangerous driving” and said the endangerment offences were in the upper range for such offences. She banned O’Brien from driving for ten years after his release and backdated his sentence to May 2018.

Sergeant Brendan O’Halloran told the court that a garda patrol noticed a red Nissan Micra hesitate when its driver spotted gardaí. The car sped away as they approached. O’Brien drove the wrong way down several one-way streets and through red lights, before reversing into a stopped patrol car with two gardaí inside. The pursuit ended on Queen’s Street when he collided with a taxi, which spun into a pole. O’Brien, his passenger and the taxi driver were treated in hospital for minor injuries.

Defence counsel Karl Monahan said O’Brien had “got a fright” when he saw the patrol unit and drove away because he was disqualified. O’Brien was intoxicated during the incident. The court heard he had 122 previous convictions, mostly for road-traffic matters. The judge noted his long history of addiction and a negative probation report, while accepting that there could have been miscommunication.