Arrest warrant issued for serial drunk driver who skipped sentencing

A Paradise man who continues to drive impaired despite jail time and getting injured in a serious accident has skipped out on his sentencing.

An arrest warrant was issued at provincial court in St. John's on Thursday for Dennis Lawlor, 44.

Lawlor failed to show up for his recent court appearances and was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday on six driving-related charges but never showed up.

• Serial drunk driver heading to jail

His brushes with the law date back to 2009, when he was convicted for impaired driving.

In July 2012, he overturned a dump truck with a blood-alcohol level over three times the legal limit in St. John's.

It took emergency personnel two hours to free Lawlor from the vehicle. He suffered multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Promises to rehabilitate

Two months later, he was once again charged with impaired driving after he ran his pickup truck into another vehicle in Mount Pearl and fled the scene.

Police later caught up to him at a St. John's gas station, where he had hit one of the gas pumps.

In May 2013, he rammed a pickup truck into the back of a dump truck.

In court at the time, Lawlor admitted he had an alcohol problem, and he was seeking help through rehabilitation.

"It is a problem that I have to overcome.… This is not a life," he said during his 2013 sentencing.

Lawlor was given 90 days in jail to be served on weekends and one year's probation. He also had his licence revoked for five years — a hard blow for the heavy equipment operator.

But in 2016, despite his past assurance to turn things around, Lawlor was once more pulled over for impaired and disqualified driving.

And in April of last year, he was pulled over by police for impaired driving again.