Limerick student avoids jail after attempting to sell stolen jeep
Tuesday 24 June 2014
A Limerick student has avoided jail after he was found guilty of possessing a stolen jeep and of tricking a customer into paying a deposit for it.
31 year old Christopher Kelly of Newtown, Castletroy, Co. Limerick was given a five year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court and was warned he would serve the whole term if he ever “puts a foot wrong.”
Live 95FM's Eric Clarke reports...
Christopher Kelly was convicted by a jury in March of possessing a stolen Toyota Land Cruiser at Old Lucan Rd, Palmerstown in Dublin on September 28th, 2007.
The father-of-one was also found guilty of persuading a man to pay a deposit of €500 for the stolen jeep at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre on September 15th that year and of attempting to induce the man to buy the jeep for €25,000.
The man became suspicious because the price was below market value.
Kelly has 32 previous convictions and previously served two and half years in jail for handling and possessing stolen vehicles, after his garage was raided by gardaí in April 2009.
Judge Patrick McCartan described Kelly as the “bad apple” of his family who had “brazenly lied through his teeth” to the jury in the face of overwhelming evidence against him.
Suspending the five year sentence the judge acknowledged that Kelly was trying to “change his ways” and doing well in his studies at the University of Limerick.