€25k award for detective after van rammed garda car

A hero garda, whose car was rammed by a man he had previously saved in a machete attack, has been awarded €25,000 compensation in the High Court for whiplash injuries.

Detective Garda Clifford Singleton, aged 43, who sued the minister for public expenditure and reform, told the court that, in May 2001, he had been investigating vans being stolen from the docks in Dublin.

He said gardaí had been tipped off about a delivery which was to take place in Raheny, Dublin, and had been waiting at Hilltop Shopping Centre. After witnessing the transaction, he had shouted “gardaí” to the van driver, who tried to escape.