AN expectant father, who drove at 150kph in the wrong direction down the M1 while trying to evade gardaí, has been jailed for 14 months.

Cars had to move out of the way as the vehicle, driven by Daniel Conroy, sped towards them, before the defendant crashed at a roundabout in Balbriggan and was eventually arrested following a foot chase.

Conroy, Grange Rath, Drogheda and formerly of The Strand, Donabate, appeared before Judge Patrick Brady at Swords District Court last week.

The 21-year-old had already been convicted of three previous offences for which he had received three separate suspended sentences, which were to be invoked as a result of a recent case.

He had received a four-month suspended sentence for the unauthorised taking of a car on Ardlea Road, on March 3rd, 2007, along with a sixmonth suspended sentence for failing to appear at Swords District Court on March 10th, 2007.

And he had also been handed a further suspended six-month term following a conviction under the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act, after he was caught with four metal bars in his possession, which were taped together, on the Malahide Road in Swords, on December 23rd, 2006.

Those sentences were to be activated following Conroy's recent conviction for reckless endangerment at Dublin Circuit Court and the previous cases were brought back before Judge Brady last week.

The court heard gardaí had followed a car driven by Conroy on Gracefield Road, Artane, at 1.15am on January 6th last year and attempted to pull the vehicle over.

However, the driver refused to stop and instead drove off at speed, the court was told, eventually reaching the M1, where he drove in the wrong direction.

'The car went onto the M1 southbound lane, but was going north,' Garda Ciaran Brady explained. 'At this point, it was doing speeds of between 150kph and 170kph.

'Gardaí followed on the other side of the M1 and such was the danger to people along the road, we turned off our lights and sirens, so as not to distract them from what was coming towards them.

'Several vehicles had to take evasive action. The vehicle went up the sliproad at Balbriggan and continued in the wrong direction up to the old N1. At this point, it was doing up to 140kph.

'At a junction, it lost control and hit a roundabout, causing substantial damage to the vehicle. The car stopped and the defendant got out. A foot-chase ensued and he was arrested.'

Defending Conroy, his solicitor told the court her client had been in custody from January 6th to May 27th last year and had been released on bail.

'He broke the terms of his bail and was arrested again,' she said. 'He has been in custody in total around six months.

'I would ask you to possibly suspend part of the sentence. His girlfriend is seven-and-a-half months pregnant.'

In surmising, Judge Brady told the court the defendant had 'no merits' and imposed the original suspended sentences.

Conroy was jailed for four months for the unauthorised taking, received a further six month consecutive sentence for failing to appear and was incarcerated for another six months consecutively for possessing the offensive weapon.

Judge Brady recommended Conroy's detention being at Wheatfield Prison, while the defendant will next appear for sentencing at Dublin Circuit Court on June 29th.