Disqualified driver crashed into grandmother doing the school run with her grandson
A disqualified driver who crashed into a grandmother doing a school run in the Larne area, has received a suspended prison sentence.
The woman was driving her grandson home from primary school when her vehicle was pushed into a field in the collision at Deerpark Road before 3pm on November 10, 2023.
Details were given at Ballymena Magistrates' Court regarding defendant Mark Joseph Cairns (41), with an address listed as Elderburn at Newtownabbey.
He was a disqualified driver at the time of the collision.
He was in court for sentencing on charges of dangerous driving; driving whilst disqualified; failing to remain and report a collision; and using a car - a Mercedes - without insurance.
A prosecutor told an earlier court a collision happened at a bend as the Mercedes struck the other vehicle which was driving in the opposite direction.
The court heard there was "quite some force" and the Peugeot car was "pushed back into a field" leaving the grandmother "highly distressed".
The prosecutor said the grandmother had some minor whiplash injuries and the child was unharmed. The driver of the other car "hadn't remained at the scene".
Cairns had been driving a car he "borrowed".
District Judge Nigel Broderick said they were "serious offences" and the defendant had a "very poor record".
The judge had previously deferred sentence until January to see if the defendant could engage positively with probation and not re-offend.
Now, a court has been told there had been no re-offending and there had been engagement with probation.
A defence lawyer said the defendant had been in hospital for 19 days as a result of the collision. Judge Broderick handed down a five months jail term, suspended for two years; and banned the defendant from driving for a year.