Limerick hurler Kyle Hayes charged with dangerous driving in Co Cork

All-Ireland winning Limerick hurler Kyle Hayes has been remanded to appear in court in September after he was charged with dangerous driving in Co Cork earlier this month.

The 26-year-old appeared at Mallow District Court on Tuesday where he was charged with dangerous driving on the N20 in Co Cork contrary to Section 53 of the Road Traffic Act 2011.

Mr Hayes, of Ballyashea, Kildimo, Co Limerick, is alleged to have driven in a dangerous manner on the main Cork-Limerick road at Lissavoura, Grenagh on July 14th last.

Liam Carroll BL, for Mr Hayes, said his client was willing to enter a plea to the lesser charge of careless driving in relation to the incident if that was acceptable to the court.

However, Judge Colm Roberts said he wanted to hear the evidence before deciding whether he would accept the guilty plea to the lesser charge. He said offering a plea to a lesser charge was “a trick that was being pulled all over the country” and he had been stung by it before and wanted to hear the facts of the case.

Judge Roberts fully accepted Mr Carroll had not pulled such “a trick” on him in the past but he stressed that dangerous driving was too serious a charge to reduce without hearing the facts.

Sgt Linda O’Leary applied for an adjournment to allow the prosecuting garda attend to give the facts in the case. She asked for the matter to be put back to September 10th.

“There is far less tolerance of dangerous charges being reduced to careless driving,” said Judge Roberts as he granted the application and adjourned the matter to September 10th.

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