Man jailed for hijacking military jeep at army camp

A man who was one of a gang that hi-jacked a military vehicle from a quartermaster sergeant near an army camp has been sentenced to three years in prison with the final two suspended.

Joseph Haide (aged 25) of De Selby Rise, Tallaght, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to taking a vehicle by force or threat near Kilbride Army Camp, Military Road in Wicklow on April 17, 2010. He also admitted to a charge of allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle on the same date.

Garda JP Donoghue told Mr Ronan Kennedy BL, prosecuting, that Quartermaster Sergeant Patrick Kelly went down to the base camp that day where he found five youths drinking with their car pulled across the road.

They asked the sergeant to help them move the car and deciding that the vehicle was stopped in a dangerous part of the road, he agreed to push it up the hill.

He then returned to his own official military jeep when the group asked for a lift. He refused on the basis that it was a military vehicle.

Gda Donoghue said one of the group then reached in and tried to take the keys from the ignition while others tried to drag the man from the vehicle. Another got into the back of the jeep and threatened the sergeant with a bottle shouting he would kill him.

In fear for his safety, the sergeant got out of the vehicle and ran away but the group followed him until he grabbed a rock for his own protection. The gang then returned to the jeep and drove off towards Tallaght.

Gda Donoghue said the vehicle was then driven in a dangerous manner, driving at high speeds and on the wrong side of the road. The chase came to an end in a housing estate in Rathfarnham after the jeep was rammed into one of the patrol cars pursuing it.

Haide was not the driver of the jeep. He remained behind in the vehicle for a few minutes while his accomplices fled the scene. He ran off himself but was arrested as he was trying to escape by climbing a fence.

He later made full admissions and told gardaí he had been drinking at the time.

Haide said he had been stuck in the middle of nowhere with a group of people he was terrified of when he had just “wanted to go home”.

Gda Donoghue agreed with Ms Kitty Pearle BL, defending, that Haide was intoxicated on the night and accepted that he had regretted his involvement, describing it as the “biggest mistake of my life”.

The driver of the vehicle later received a three-year sentence with the final 18 months suspended.

No other person has come before the courts in relation to the incident.

Ms Pearle said Haide was now sober for 12 months having attended a treatment centre. He still attends for one to one counselling.

She said his involvement in the offence had been a “bad decision made through drink” but that he has now dealt with his drinking problem.

“My client has since made a real effort to change his life,” Ms Pearle said.

Judge Nolan said the quartermaster sergeant should not have been attacked and humiliated in the manner he was, “a man doing his job”.

He accepted Haide has finally dealt with his alcohol addiction but said he should have had more sense at the time.