Driver ‘set a trap’ for truck behind him

A 51-year-old French polisher, currently appealing conviction and imprisonment for damaging a €10m Monet painting, was said by a judge yesterday to have deliberately set a trap to cause a traffic collision.

Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, said Andrew Shannon had by the manner in which he had driven his car “purposely and with intention set a trap” for a lorry driver behind him. Judge Groarke said Mr Shannon’s actions were utterly irrational.

Mr Shannon, who told the Circuit Civil Court he had 47 previous criminal convictions, sued an international haulage company and its driver, Ross Buckley, for €38,000 damages for whiplash injuries and more than €3,000 repairs to his car.