Man used 'dangerously defective' van to transport large kerosene

A man convicted of driving a dangerously defective vehicle was hauling 1,000 litres of kerosene at the time.

Eamon Harkin was driving a flatbed Ford Transit when he was stopped at a multi-agency checkpoint at Gortnavern, Kerrykeel on February 15, 2021

Sergeant Vincent Muldoon told Letterkenny District Court that the vehicle was classed as dangerously defective. The chassis of the vehicle was rusted, he told the court.

Sergeant Muldoon said the smell of kerosene was evident as soon as the vehicle approached the checkpoint.

Sergeant Muldoon said the condition of the vehicle on the day was the issue.

Solicitor for Harkin, Mr Patsy Gallagher, said his client lost 1,000 litres of kerosene. “He shouldn't have been carrying it in the first place,” remarked Judge Éiteáin Cunningham.

Mr Gallagher said there was no speed involved and there was no dangerous driving charge against his client.

“It was more the weight of it,” Mr Gallagher said.

“He shouldn't have been carrying it,” Sergeant Muldoon added. “The vehicle was deemed to be dangerously defective.”

Harkin, a 34-year-old of Oak Park in Convoy, was charged with using a CVR vehicle without a certificate of roadworthiness and also with driving a dangerously defective vehicle.

Judge Cunningham convicted Harkin and fined him €300, giving him five months to pay.