Men convicted of armed seizure of car

Two Lithuanian men who used a sawn-off shotgun when they hijacked a car in Skerries earlier this year will be sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Mykolas Dockevicius (aged 21) and Marius Bardauskas (aged 22) pointed the sawn-off shotgun at the owner, a fellow-Lithuanian who was trying to sell the car, before they seized it with a third accomplice.

Dockevicius of Greenpark Meadows, Mullingar, Co Westmeath Way, and Bardauskas of Oldbridge Lucan, pleaded guilty to unlawfully seizing the car by force at Milberton, Skerries on March 22, 2008.

Their guilty plea came after their trial began before a jury of six men and six women. Judge Patrick McCartan remanded both in custody for sentence in January along with the third culprit.

Eimantis Kadzevicius (aged 21) of Moyglass Lawn, Lucan pleaded guilty earlier this week to his role in the crime before a jury was sworn in for his trial.

Mr Shane Costelloe BL, prosecuting, had told the jury that the owner who was trying to sell the vehicle met with a group of men after they contacted him following an advertisement of the sale in a Lithuanian-language newspaper.

One of the men arranged to go on a test drive with the seller but pulled over the vehicle and rang someone on his mobile phone.

Mr Costelloe said that a second car then pulled in behind the vehicle and, after two men got into the back of the seller's car, a sawn-off shotgun was pointed at him and the group threatened him before they took his vehicle by force.