The High Court has prohibited the continued prosecution of Glenn Ryan on a drug-driving charge pending before Blanchardstown District Court after finding that allowing the case to proceed would breach fair procedures.
Ryan was stopped while driving on May 17, 2018 and taken to Clondalkin Garda Station. A subsequent Medical Bureau of Road Safety certificate showed a cannabis concentration above the prescribed limit. Garda Cian Tennanty then applied for a summons alleging an offence under section 4(1) of the Road Traffic Act 2010.
Ryan’s solicitor later argued that section 4(1A), a lesser offence carrying a mandatory one-year driving disqualification rather than four years, should have been charged.
In December 2019, the DPP’s office notified the defence that an application would be made to amend the summons. When that application was made, the District Court was told on behalf of Garda Tennanty that he had preferred the wrong charge.
The District Judge refused the amendment. The prosecution then indicated that it would proceed on the existing section 4(1) charge.
The DPP subsequently wrote to Ryan’s solicitor saying the amendment application itself had been an error and that the available evidence was sufficient to prosecute under section 4(1).
Ryan sought judicial review. The High Court first held that his application could proceed despite the DPP’s argument that it had been brought outside the normal three-month time limit.
On the substantive issue, Ms Justice O’Regan stressed the unusual sequence of events. The court considered it significant that the District Court had expressly been told the wrong charge was preferred and that the DPP had not addressed that representation in its later correspondence, statement of opposition or affidavits.
The court held that continuing the section 4(1) prosecution in those circumstances breached Ryan’s right to fair procedures and granted an order prohibiting it.
The ruling did not determine whether Ryan had committed a drug-driving offence or whether another lawful prosecution could otherwise have been brought.