Man ordered to pay €20,000 after cutting wires in car at Donegal Rally

A COUNTY Antrim man has been ordered to pay €20,000 to a rally driver after admitting causing damage to the man’s car shortly before he was due to participate in the Donegal International Car Rally.

The accused, Samuel John Crothers, pleaded guilty to cutting the fuel pump switch and the fan switch along with three wires to the rev limiter and the safety switch of the rally car, a Ford Escort, belonging to Richard Hall.

The incident occurred at the main service area of the Donegal Rally on June 18, 2022, where Gardaí were called to the scene at Ballyraine.

Mr Hall, who had entered the Historics section of the rally, had been about to commence final preparations on the vehicle for the event but when he got to the car, he observed a man in it.

The injured party told Gardaí that he knew the man who had threatened to damage his car if he didn’t hand over money he was alleged to owe him.

Mr Hall’s co-driver, Declan Campbell, said he had observed the accused in the car and saw what he took to be a kill switch.

Crothers, with an address at Ballynashee Road, Glenwherry, Ballymena, was subsequently arrested and taken to Letterkenny Garda Station where he was interviewed but made no admissions. He did, however, plead guilty at a later date.

The court was told he had no previous convictions in this jurisdiction or in his native Northern Ireland.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Hall said his life and that of his co-driver could have been threatened.

Stating that the incident continued to cause him anxiety, he said that rallying was a passion in his life and after taking a break from the sport to recover, he had tried to get back into it to compete in the Manx Rally but had lost his confidence and now felt isolated.

Defence counsel, Peter Nolan, B.L. said the accused (66) had carried out some mechanical work on Mr. Hall’s rally car some time previously but the bill for €3,800 had not been paid.

The accused had arrived in Letterkenny at around 8.15am on the morning of the rally and while walking around the paddock area, found a pair of pliers on the ground which he pocketed.

He was there, he claimed, to collect the money from Mr Hall which he had owed him for 15 years.

Taking to the witness stand, the accused said he was now retired but had been involved for over 30 years in preparing motor sport vehicles and building rally cars from the ground up.

His intention when arriving in Letterkenny on the day of the incident was to recover the money and he had gone to the service area for that purpose.

“I admit I cut the wires and I deeply regret it. I was a bit confused, a bit alarmed,” he told the court.

He disputed a claim for €24,100 for repairs to the rally car which he described as “grossly exaggerated.”

Asked by Mr Nolan if he regretted what he did, the accused replied: “Yes, I do.”

A brief video was played to the court where a voice was heard saying “go on ahead, John, do as much damage as you want.”

Defence counsel quoted from a probation report that had been carried out by the Northern Ireland authorities who described the offence as an “isolated lapse of judgement”. The accused was at a low risk of reoffending, the report added

“He took the law into his own hands which he should not have done. He lost temporary control – it was a once-off incident,” said Mr Nolan.

The money claim owed to the accused had been “gnawing away at him for years,” said Mr Nolan.

He had lost his business during the Covid epidemic which had affected him badly.

Describing it as a “very serious offence”, Judge John Aylmer said it had an “appalling impact” on Mr. Hall after he had spent many months preparing his car for the rally.

“It had an extremely adverse effect on him.”

Placing the offence in the mid-range of such offences, Judge Aylmer said it merited a prison sentence of four years.

He noted that the accused had entered a plea of guilty though it had been very late in the day after the trial date had been set. “There is some mitigation but not much. There was no justification for what he did.”

Judge Aylmer said he found it difficult to reduce the sentence down further than three and a half years but giving regard to the accused’s previous good character and the fact that he had no previous convictions, he said he would adjourn the sentence for 12 months to facilitate the accused paying a substantial amount of money to the injured party.

He set the figure at €20,000 and said he expected to see at least €10,000 of this paid over within the next 12 months.