A FERRARI driver is facing a “significant driving ban” after a judge said he had “failed spectacularly” to run a so-called hip flask defence.
Millionaire property developer Christopher David Walsh was more than twice over the legal drink-drive limit when he crashed his brand-new £150,000 California T Ferrari into two cars on Belfast Road in Holywood, Co Down on September 26 2015.
It was the defence case that Walsh (53), pictured, of Mount Pleasant in Stranmillis in south Belfast, had consumed the alcohol after the crash.
However, after hearing evidence at Newtownards Magistrates Court yesterday District Judge Peter King told Walsh, who has a previous conviction for drink-driving, he had “failed spectacularly to discharge the burden that has shifted to you” on foot of his claims.
Adjourning to allow pre-sentence reports, the judge told Walsh he is the subject of an interim driving disqualification but added: “I’m minded to impose a significant driving ban as well as community service.”
Witness Paul Synnott heard “an almighty bang” outside his home on Belfast Road and went to investigate.
He took photos of the damage, saw Walsh walking away and followed him in his car while giving the police call operator a running commentary.
Mr Synnott saw Walsh “swaying slightly” but lost sight of him.
An off-duty police officer found Walsh “curled up in a ball, possibly trying to hide” in knee-high grass.
When he helped Walsh to stand up, Walsh “was fairly unsteady on his feet” and his breath had a “strong smell of intoxicating liquor”.
Walsh was arrested for driving while unfit and taken to Bangor police station. He initially refused to give a sample but when he did he was found to be more than twice the legal limit.
Walsh claimed he had no memory of the incident. His memory kicked back in again on the afternoon of the following day, he claimed.
A lawyer said Walsh had been subjected to an assault the month before and claimed that his girlfriend had noticed then that his short-term memory was failing.
Although no MRI scans were produced to the court, he claimed he had gone through such a scan and that a consultant neurosurgeon had since told him his memory loss could potentially be explained by two blows to the head.
Under cross-examination, however, it transpired the consultant neurosurgeon had given what he himself described as “generic answers” in his report as he had seen none of Walsh’s GP notes or records.
The lawyer suggested to Walsh that despite running a so-called hip flask defence, “your evidence today is really that you don’t know what alcohol you had in your system when you crashed”.
Walsh replied: “That’s correct.”
With Walsh further agreeing that nobody saw him with alcohol in the car or at the scene the lawyer put to him that the simple explanation was that he was already drunk behind the wheel.
Walsh was convicted of driving with excess alcohol, careless driving, failing to stop and failing to report following an accident.
