Man jailed for fourth unauthorised taking of vehicle

A man with 18 previous convictions for dangerous driving, one for hit and run, and three for unauthorised taking of a vehicle, has been jailed for the unauthorised taking of a vehicle, which was never recovered.

Dylan Flood (28), with an address at Fortlawn Park, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, appeared before Judge Jonathan Dunphy at Longford Circuit Court, where he faced a charge of unauthorised taking of a vehicle from a filling station in Mullingar in January 2022.

Detective Garda Orla Geraghty, giving evidence, outlined to Shane Geraghty, BL, for the state, how, on the morning of January 13, 2022, the owner of the vehicle had awoken to find her Hyundai Tucson was missing from her driveway.

Investigations led gardaí to a Circle K filling station on the N4 in Mullingar, where CCTV footage from 5am on January 16, 2022, showed a white Hyundai Tucson pulling up to a pump, a male exiting the vehicle, filling up, and entering the shop to pay before returning to the car and driving eastbound.

Further CCTV footage showed the same vehicle passing through the toll gate at Kilcock.

Mr Flood was identified and, on October 6, 2022, Det Gda Geragthy travelled to Blanchardstown District Court, where she met with the accused and arrested him.

He was interviewed five times but nothing of evidential value was gleaned from questioning.

Det Gda Geraghty told the court that Mr Flood is a father of two. He is not working at the moment and is on Jobseekers Allowance of €200. He is originally from Blanchardstown and resides with his mother.

“He’s been involved with criminality from the age of 16 and has come to the notice of gardaí on a number of occasions,” she said.

Mr Flood has a total of 47 previous convictions, some of which postdate the offence that was before the court. He is currently serving a custodial sentence, with a release date in September 2028.

A total of 18 of those convictions were for dangerous driving, six were for other road traffic offences, and Mr Flood has one conviction for hit and run, and three prior convictions for the unauthorised taking of vehicles. The car in this case was never recovered.

In mitigation, the court heard that Mr Flood’s parents were separated and his father had a heavy influence on him. There is a strong link between drug use and offending and he was highly intoxicated when arrested for this offence.

A letter of apology from Mr Flood stated he was “very distressed by the loss of his grandmother” at the time of offending and that “she’d be ashamed” of the person he had become. He acknowledged it was “time for a change” in his behaviour.

“This individual is a menace to society when he is in control of anything with an engine,” said Judge Dunphy, noting the fact that the vehicle was never recovered, that Mr Flood was banned from driving at the time of the offence, and that he had several significantly relevant previous convictions.

Noting a guilty plea, a difficult past, a lack of role model, and his own family obligations to his two children as mitigating factors, Judge Dunphy proceeded to impose a three-year sentence, the final nine months of which he suspended for two years.

He also had “no choice” but to disqualify Mr Flood from driving for 15 years, but backdated the disqualification and sentence to January 28, 2025, when Mr Flood went into custody on this charge.

“He’s fortunate that it’s a maximum tariff of five years we’re dealing with today,” said Judge Dunphy, adding that he had the power to make the sentence consecutive to the one Mr Flood is currently serving.

“But I didn’t, given he’s serving a sentence for similar offences and given the principle of totality.”