Gardaí in Cork make three arrests in Operation Joyrider

Three arrests have been made as part of Operation Joyrider, a Garda strategy directed at the joyriding problem in Cork, where 450 cars and motorbikes have been stolen in two years.

Gardaí in Cork make three arrests in Operation Joyrider

By Liam Heylin

Three arrests have been made as part of Operation Joyrider, a Garda strategy directed at the joyriding problem in Cork, where 450 cars and motorbikes have been stolen in two years.

Detective Garda Pat Barry said in his evidence against bail being granted to one of the three men, Nicholas Crowley, that there was a gang on the northside of Cork City who call themselves Farranree Joyriders.

Det Garda Barry said Mr Crowley, aged 20, of 132 Bakers Rd, Gurranabraher, was arrested on Tuesday and that gardaí were opposed to bail being granted to him as it was believed he would commit more joyriding offences.

“He is part of a gang calling themselves Farranree Joyriders. He is one of the gang, if not the main one in the gang,” said Det Garda Barry.

Diarmuid Kelleher, defending, objected to this reference to Farranree Joyriders and Mr Crowley’s alleged role in it. “Using that term is lowering the tone of a bail application,” he said.

Mr Crowley was hit with a total of 27 charges yesterday, 22 from Det Garda Barry and five from Garda Liam Lingane. Both officers objected to bail being granted to Mr Crowley for fear he would commit further driving offences.

He was charged with 24 counts of driving stolen vehicles and three of handling stolen phones.

Mr Crowley applied for bail and said he had found the three phones in a park near his home and had advertised in a lost and found section of Facebook that he had found them. By doing so, he was performing a good deed, he claimed. When particulars of driving one car were put to him, he denied it.

Mr Kelleher said that charges of using stolen vehicles related to unspecified dates and locations and he did not understand how there could be jurisdiction to have the cases brought before Cork District Court, adding that the alleged offences could relate to Donegal or anywhere else.

Det Garda Barry said of Mr Crowley’s bail application: “If granted bail he will be a danger to members of the public by being out driving at night.”

Judge Olann Kelleher remanded him in custody for one week on the charges.

A 17-year-old defendant, who cannot be identified as he is a juvenile, was charged with five counts of driving a stolen car between May 11 and October 16. He faces similar counts of driving a stolen vehicle in May, driving another on October 17, 2017, and driving two others on various dates in November last year.

Jake O’Sullivan, aged 18, of 22 Fairfield Rd, Farranree, was arrested by Detective Garda David Hickey and charged with driving 11 stolen vehicles between March and November 2017.

Both the juvenile and O’Sullivan were released on bail on their charges but were required to keep an 11pm-6am curfew, not contact co-defendants, not drive, abstain from alcohol, and sign three days a week at their local Garda stations.

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