Teen jailed for driving offences

A teenager has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years detention for a number of driving offences, one of which led to the owner of a car being dragged behind his moving vehicle after it was hijacked.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of three men who dragged Mr Ovidiu Carp from his car while he was sleeping on Dublin's Victoria Quay.

The man was then put into the back seat where the accused punched and kicked him before he was thrown out of car and dragged behind it for some time. Mr Carp was later treated in hospital for a broken nose and cuts and bruises to his body.

A bus driver who witnessed the incident called the gardaí who later arrested the teenager. He was interviewed but denied any involvement in the offence.

The teenager pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing Mr Carp harm and unlawfully interfering with the control of a vehicle, allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car on Decies Road Ballyfermot, unlawful use of a car and reckless endangerment on Ballyfermot Road, Ballyfermot on dates between March 28 and May 26, 2008.

The boy had 48 previous convictions which included robbery, theft, assault and criminal damage and he was on bail for each of the offence when he committed the next one.

Judge Katherine Delahunt suspended the last two years of the sentence after taking into account the fact that since his remand in custody the teenager has been attending school and undergoing counselling.

"This all occurred over a short period of time. You are fortunate that you had been remanded in custody because since then you seem to have recognised where your problems lie," Judge Delahunt told the teenager.