Police have alleged that a phone thrown from a car travelling along the A1 contains evidence of criminality but must be rebuilt in order to access it.
Eoin Morrow, of no fixed abode, Newry, was arrested following a high-speed car chase on September 16, last year, in which £387,860 was seized from his car.
He has been charged with possessing criminal property, dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, and entering an arrangement which facilitated the acquisition, retention, use, or control of criminal property on behalf of another person.
During an update to Newry Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, a Detective Constable confirmed that there were no outstanding forensic matters in the case; however, there were two outstanding mobile phones which needed to be examined.
“One taken from his vehicle, which we believe is his everyday phone,” explained the Detective Constable.
He added: “During the pursuit, the defendant threw a phone out of the window of the moving car. We couldn’t initially get into the phone, then we managed to get a PIN to access the phone, but because of the damage to the phone, which was thrown onto the A1, we now have to rebuild the phone and we only found this out last Thursday or Friday.
“Our cyber support unit can’t give a timeline. We believe this is the phone he tried to dispose of, and the evidence was on it.
“The first phone, there was not a lot of evidence on that relating to the alleged offences.”
The defence asked the court for that issue to be expedited and a timeline to be provided on how long it would take for the phone to be rebuilt.
During a previous court sitting, a Detective Constable told the court that at about 5.27pm, police attempted to stop a black Audi, but it drove off on the wrong side of the road before making its way onto the southbound carriageway of the A1 towards the border.
The car was driving at about 90mph when a mobile phone was seen being thrown from it across to the northbound carriageway.
The Detective Constable said the car reached a top speed of 109mph, but three police vehicles managed to box it in and prevent it from crossing the border.
The case has been adjourned until April 2 for an update.
