Man jailed for car hijack and Garda chase

A Romanian national has been jailed for four years after he walked along the M50 before hijacking a car at Dublin Airport and getting involved in a dangerous chase with gardaí.

Petrica Lucaci, aged 26, had a minor accident at an M50 toll booth before he abandoned his car and walked for a number of hours to Dublin Airport.

He knocked down a taxi-driver after driving onto a pedestrian median while trying to escape in a BMW he had just hijacked.

During the subsequent chase with airport police and gardaí, Lucaci broke two sets of red lights and drove against two lanes of traffic at the dual carriage on Naul Rd. He then drove the wrong way around the Ballymun Road Roundabout.

He ultimately crashed while trying to perform a U-turn to get back onto the dual carriageway.

Lucaci was arrested after 10 gardaí attempted to restrain him, while he came at them with “fists spinning”. He struck three gardaí during the struggle, with one garda left with a cut behind his ear. He later assaulted two security officers while being treated in Beaumont Hospital.

Lucaci, of Lower Dominick St, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a number of offences on October 7, 2014.

He has no previous convictions in Ireland or Romania and had €2,000 in court as a token of his remorse.