Man caught as he was about to move stolen car
By Aoife Nic Ardghail
A MAN who was caught as he was about to move a stolen vehicle has received a three year suspended sentence.
Father-of-one John Keogh (25) later told gardai he had been asked to collect the Ford Mondeo as a favour to third parties.
Detective Garda Tim Casey said Keogh told colleagues that “some fellas” had given him the vehicle’s key earlier that day.
Keogh, of Rowlagh Park, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a stolen vehicle at Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Clondalkin, on March 24, 2017.
His 29 previous convictions are mostly for minor road traffic offences.
The detective said he and other gardai had set up surveillance on the stolen vehicle after receiving confidential information on its location outside the hotel.
The court heard it had been reported stolen from Laytown, Co Meath, ten days previously. When it was found parked outside the hotel, it had been fitted with false number plates.
Gardai observed a blue transit van pulling into the same car park and Keogh getting out.
As he was walking towards the stolen vehicle, gardai approached and he tried to throw away the vehicle’s key.
Det Gda Casey told Maurice Coffey BL, prosecuting, Keogh was arrested after a brief struggle and made admissions during interview.
The detective accepted when Alan Delany BL, defending, suggested his client hadn’t been aware the vehicle was stolen but didn’t ask questions when asked to move it.
Det Gda Casey further agreed that Keogh’s role was to move the car.
Mr Delany submitted to Judge Melanie Greally that his client comes from a supportive family and has no previous convictions for anything of this nature.
He submitted that Keogh’s last conviction was in 2016. Judge Greally imposed a three year sentence, suspended for that period.
