A young man stole a Bus Éireann vehicle in Co Donegal and drove it to Dublin after being told another bus was full.
Derek Dunne appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court where he entered a plea of guilty and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
Dunne, of Markievicz House, Dublin, is charged with unlawfully taking the bus at Bus Éireann Bus Station on Ramelton Road, Letterkenny on July 10th, 2023.
The 24-year-old appeared before Judge John Aylmer for sentencing after the extraordinary incident during which he drove the €390,000 bus from Letterkenny along the M1 motorway before abandoning it in Sheriff Street in Dublin’s north inner city.
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The court was told that the bus was not damaged and still had the key in the ignition.
Garda Pearse Glynn, led by State barrister Fiona Crawford, outlined the incident to the court. He said gardaí received a call from Bus Éireann on the morning of July 10th, 2023, to say one of their buses was missing from the Letterkenny depot and later learned that a bus had been found abandoned in Sheriff Street in Dublin.
Dunne was identified from enquiries and he was arrested and interviewed on September 12th. He made full admissions.
CCTV footage was harvested which showed a male in a green hoodie arriving in Letterkenny at 10.35pm and was seen waiting until 11.06pm until the bus driver had left. At 11.52pm, Dunne was observed entering a number of buses which were parked up before eventually entering the bus he would steal.
He sat in the driver’s seat for about 45 minutes before eventually turning on the lights and driving off in the bus at 00.40am. When interviewed at Pearse Street Garda station, Dunne told gardaí that he was planning to get a later bus back but was told the bus was full and decided to take a bus himself. After the 237-kilometre journey, Dunne left the key in the bus and left.
Barrister for the accused, Daniel Comerford, instructed by solicitor Danica Kinane, said his client had taken an extremely foolish decision and acted on impulse. He said that by doing this Dunne had created a substantial risk of harm to other people but that he now has a full understanding of this.
Although he has no previous convictions, he is currently on remand in prison facing other charges which he has pleaded to.
Mr Comerford said Dunne had grown up in a family with drug problems and that he lived with his grandparents. He has worked in the haulage industry and with heavy goods because of the influence of an uncle who also worked in that industry. The court was told that Dunne does not have a heavy goods vehicle licence, when asked by the judge.
The judge said this was “a very unusual offence”. He outlined the journey taken by Dunne in the stolen bus, which he said many in the court present knew was “a very hazardous route”.
He described Dunne’s incident as “unusual and rather weird behaviour” saying he was told he had a long fascination with heavy goods vehicles.
He said it was obvious from the evidence that there was no intention to deprive Bus Éireann and that he simply wanted to get back to Dublin.
Before mitigation he said the offence merited a sentence of two years in prison. But he said the accused came before him with only a previous conviction for speeding, that he was completely co-operative with gardaí and he entered an early plea.
Those features merited a reduction of sentence to one of 18 months, he said. He suspended the sentence in its entirety on the understanding that Dunne be under the supervision of the probation services for 18 months when released from prison.
