Teen stole and crashed mini-bus, court hears

A 16-year-old boy, who has been found guilty of driving a mini-bus that was stolen and later crashed, has been given a two-month sentence, by Judge Hugh O’Donnell at the Dublin Children’s Court.

The boy had been found guilty of unlawfully using the stolen mini-bus, on April 6 last, at Mill Road, in Blanchardstown, in Dublin.

Blanchardstown Garda Peter Foley said that he saw the “coming out by the James Connolly Memorial Hospital, it tried to go around a roundabout but crashed.".

The teen fled but was arrested in bushes nearby.

In mitigation the Judge was told the teen had a difficult family background. Solicitor Catherine Ghent said “that growing up, from a young age, he had frequently seen siblings injecting themselves with drugs".

However, she added that the teen had been excelling in a training course and pleaded with the court not to interrupt his education by sentencing to St Patrick’s Institution.

Judge O’Donnell noted that the boy had been given probation last year for a charge for unlawfully interfering with a motor vehicle. He imposed a two month sentence but suspended it on condition the teenager was of good behaviour for the next 12 months, saying he wanted to “have something hanging over him".

The teen was unaccompanied to court by a parent; the judge had been told the boy’s mother was at work.