A legally blind man has received his second conviction in as many years for cycling while drunk, after police found him riding his bike in an “extremely unsteady” manner along the hard shoulder of a dual carriageway after a night out.

Gintaras Jankauskas was fined €200 by a judge at Letterkenny District Court this week, after he was found guilty of the offence of “driving a pedal cycle while being under the influence of an intoxicant to such an extent that he was incapable of having proper control” – with this latest incident coming just eight months after Jankauskas was fined for cycling while drunk and crashing into a passing vehicle.

Jankauskas, who on that first trip to court was found to be “clinically blind” with a “reading of 6/60 in his vision”, was reported by passing motorists and eventually stopped by gardaí as he cycled on the hard shoulder of the dual carriageway near Manorcunningham, Co. Donegal at 11.35pm on 6 July 2023, Donegal Daily reports.

The 54-year-old was described by police officers who spoke to him as “extremely unsteady” and intoxicated. After being arrested and taken to Letterkenny Garda station, where Sergeant Jim Collins said he was “fully cooperative”, Jankauskas submitted an alcohol test which produced a reading of 82 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath.

This week at Letterkenny District Court, solicitor Donough Cleary said Jankauskas had been socialising in Letterkenny on the night of his arrest, and was cycling the roughly 10km home to Manorcunningham. His bicycle is his only mode of transport, Mr Cleary told the court.

Mr Cleary added that Jankauskas moved to Ireland from Lithuania in 2005, but “doesn’t have a word of English for a man who has been here so long.”

“The whole procedure in the garda station was something of a mystery,” the solicitor said.

Judge Éiteáin Cunningham convicted Jankauskas of cycling while intoxicated and fined him €200, giving six months to pay.

> Blind man fined for cycling while drunk after crashing into car

As noted above, Jankauskas’ latest instance of cycling drunk came just eight months after he was fined €50 for crashing into and damaging a car.

On 4 October 2022, the cyclist was spotted weaving across lanes at Drumnahoagh in Letterkenny at around 3.45pm when he hit and damaged a passing car. That time, however, he was not capable of providing a breath sample to gardaí, with his solicitor Patsy Gallagher explaining to the court a month later that his client has “an issue with alcohol” but was “very apologetic”.

“He is clinically blind and a blind man on a thoroughfare could do some serious damage. There is a plea to the charge and he was very apologetic to gardaí,” Mr Gallagher said at the time. “He has an issue with alcohol and the gardaí were very humane towards him.”

The court also heard that Jankauskas had one previous conviction under the Public Order Act, with the defence solicitor adding that his client is currently “stuck” in Ireland because he cannot work due to his disability.