{"id":482699,"date":"2026-06-04T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482699\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:46:08","slug":"teenager-addicted-to-stealing-cars-pleads-guilty-to-11-charges-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482699\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenager \u2018addicted to stealing cars\u2019 pleads guilty to 11 charges \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dublin<\/a> teenager described as being \u201caddicted to stealing cars\u201d had not been provided with services to meet his needs, a court heard.<\/p>\n

The 15-year-old pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including five for motor theft or interference and for breaking into cars.<\/p>\n

The incidents involved seven vehicles in Dublin, Wexford<\/a> and Wicklow<\/a> between July and December last year, the Dublin Children\u2019s Court heard.<\/p>\n

The offences also involved \u201cdrive off\u201d petrol thefts from service stations. <\/p>\n

Defence barrister Orla Doolin said the teenager had become addicted to stealing cars, but had been very forthright in his dealings with the Probation Service and had made no denials.<\/p>\n

However, a pre-sentence report showed he had little insight into his offending and \u201cthrill-seeking behaviour,\u201d or their impact on the community.<\/p>\n

The defence acknowledged there had been an escalation, but argued it may not have happened if intervention had occurred earlier.<\/p>\n

The boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, has been in voluntary care since last year.<\/p>\n

Tusla<\/a>, the child and family agency, attended the proceedings and said a special meeting regarding the boy\u2019s future was scheduled soon.<\/p>\n

The boy had been in custody for a month on remand and was attending the gym and education at the detention centre.<\/p>\n

Counsel asked the judge to consider the boy\u2019s young age and that his guilty plea had spared witnesses from being forced to come to court.<\/p>\n

He had three prior convictions for interference with a car and possessing implements for theft, and still has to enter a plea to another motor theft charge.<\/p>\n

Judge Brendan Toale stated it was not the court\u2019s function to detain the teenager for his own care. <\/p>\n

There was another structure to deal with that, he said.<\/p>\n

He noted those working with the boy were convinced he needed special care and that the current arrangements were insufficient for his needs.<\/p>\n

The judge imposed a five-month sentence but deferred activating it pending a review in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin teenager described as being \u201caddicted to stealing cars\u201d had not been provided with services to meet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51250,615,61,60,43,53,9270,7469],"class_list":["post-482699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-criminal-courts","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-tusla","tag-wexford","tag-wicklow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}