Newtownabbey L-driver with 72 convictions stands accused of repeatedly crashing into a police car after drinking 10 pints

An “extremely stupid” learner driver drank 10 pints before he fancied a drive which culminated in him repeatedly ramming a police vehicle, a court heard today.
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Appearing at Antrim Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Ballymena, 28-year-old Greg Edward McCullough was charged with eight offences arising from an incident on 20 September this year.

McCullough, from Wynthorpe Grove in the Rush Park area of Newtownabbey, is accused of driving while unfit, dangerous driving, causing criminal damage to a police vehicle, resisting a constable, driving without insurance, driving unaccompanied as an L driver, driving without a licence and without displaying L plates.

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Giving evidence to the court in a contested bail application, a police officer said she believed she could connect McCullough to the offences and that police objected to him being freed as “there’s a risk of reoffending... and a risk to the public.”

She described how police were alerted to a possible drunk driver at Braidwater service station in Ballymena and when officers spotted the Vauxhall Meriva close to Railway Street, the driver “rammed the police vehicle several times and ignored police directions to get out”.

While McCullough did not reply after the initial caution, he later admitted during interviews that “he drank ten beers and felt like going for a drive” but because of an acquired brain injury “he doesn’t remember anything”.

Defence solicitor Ciaran Mooney conceded that McCullough had “made full admissions and apologies for his actions – it was extremely stupid of him” but submitted that any perceived risk could be managed by bail conditions.

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District Judge Nigel Broderick disagreed however, describing McCullough’s record of 72 convictions as “atrocious.”

The judge revealed that just two weeks ago, McCullough was sentenced in two different courts on the same day “and now he is here offending so there’s a significant risk of further offending”.

Remanding McCullough into custody, the judge adjourned the case to October 14.

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