Defendant blames being “stuck in Ireland” for failing to show at Nelson court

A man due to appear in the Nelson District Court said he was unable to attend because he'd had to surrender his passport. Photo / 123RF

It’s coming up three years since Gaimhreadhan Eoin O’Coileain’s allegedly bad driving on a busy section of suburban highway caught the attention of police.

Today was the 24th time his case has been called in court, yet there’s still no resolution.

O’Coileain was unable to appear in the Nelson District Court as he was stuck in Ireland, having been required to surrender his passport, he said through his lawyer.

O’Coileain was due to defend a charge of driving dangerously at a judge-alone trial, having earlier denied the charge.

The 72-year-old, also known as George Amber, was charged in early 2021 with driving dangerously after an incident on State Highway 6, Tahunanui Drive.

A summary of facts shows that on Friday, February 5, 2021, O’Coileain was alleged to have failed to give way to traffic when he pulled out of a parking space, causing another vehicle to swerve into the middle of the road to avoid a collision.

O’Coileain then allegedly overtook the same vehicle on a median strip as he approached an intersection with a side road, braked suddenly, allegedly causing the driver to again take evasive action.

It’s alleged he then sped away from traffic lights at a busy intersection and as the road merged into a single lane he crossed the centreline into oncoming traffic, narrowly avoiding a collision.

When spoken to by police later he denied the offence and said it was a false allegation and a “perjured statement made by the witness”.

At his last substantive appearance on March 8 this year, the police witness was unavailable and an agreement was made to set a hearing for today.

At one appearance this year, he told the court he was about to undergo treatment for a brain tumour, and on another occasion, he said that he lived in Ireland and had travelled to Nelson especially to attend court.

O’Coileain was told about the hearing date by his lawyer and replied three-and-a-half months later to say he would be unavailable, and that he “couldn’t see himself being available before December 23″, because he’d had to surrender his passport.

His case has now been set down for a formal proof hearing before a Justice of the Peace on November 3.

The police indicated today they were now seeking to reduce the charge to one of careless driving, which carries a lower maximum penalty.

“This case has been around a long time and wasted so much time we just want it to be dealt with,” the police said.

A formal proof hearing is similar to a trial and can proceed without the defendant.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.