The High Court has rejected Michael Sweeney’s attempt to overturn a Tuam District Court conviction for driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.
Sweeney was convicted on December 7, 2007 after evidence included a Medical Bureau of Road Safety certificate recording the presence of “Cocaine Class” in his blood. He received a custodial sentence and was disqualified from driving for two years.
The case followed Sweeney’s arrest by Garda Duane at 1.25pm on October 30, 2006. He provided a blood specimen, with one sealed sample sent to the Bureau and another given to him. A certificate received in November recorded a nil blood-alcohol concentration. Sweeney said he then discarded his own sample because he believed the matter was finished.
A second Bureau certificate arrived in February 2007, about 13 to 14 weeks later, recording the presence of “Cocaine Class”. Sweeney challenged that certificate on several grounds. He argued that the delay was excessive, that the sample might have been contaminated after being opened for alcohol testing, that the wording did not identify an intoxicant known to law, and that the Bureau seal was absent from the certificate relied upon.
Mr Justice O’Keeffe held that the substance of those complaints concerned whether the evidence at trial was sufficient. Judicial review, he said, was not an appeal on the merits of evidence before the District Court except in exceptional circumstances.
The court also found that statutory presumptions supported compliance by the Bureau with its obligations and that Sweeney had produced no evidence sufficient to rebut them. The later drug analysis was completed within the six-month period for commencing the prosecution, and no representation had been made that further analysis would not occur.
On the seal issue, Garda Duane gave evidence that the original certificate bore the Bureau seal although it did not appear on photocopies.
The High Court dismissed the judicial review application, leaving the District Court conviction undisturbed.