A 15-YEAR-OLD BOY went on a driving rampage in a car he bought through the DoneDeal website, a court has heard.

Judge John O’Connor said at the Dublin Children’s Court that it was lucky the teenager had not caused fatalities and was not facing trial for manslaughter.

The boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of dangerous driving on 10 January last at locations in north Dublin: Malahide Road in D3, the Belmayne Avenue and Malahide Road junction, a roundabout in Clarehall and on the R139, Main Street in Clongriffin, the junction of Grand Road and Willie Nolan Road, Coast Road and Moyne Road.

The juvenile court heard the teenager was driving a ’99-reg Ford Fiesta which turned away as it approached a Garda checkpoint and drove away at high-speed.

Garda Garret Ryan, of Coolock station, told Judge O’Connor that the teenager was pursued and seen driving through a red light. He then overtook a car causing two on-coming cars to take evasive actions. He went through a pedestrian crossing on the wrong side of the road, broke another red light and hit the side of another car.

He turned on to another road and began “weaving in and out of traffic” in a housing estate.

Busy

Garda Ryan said it happened at 3pm and it was busy time of the day. At Grange Road the boy drove on the wrong side of the road and “forced on-coming traffic out of his way” and he narrowly missed a collision at Willie Nolan Road.

The court heard the boy started to head in the direction of Portmarnock and he drove on the Coast Road on the wrong side. The Moyne Road had been been flooded and when the teenager got there he “hit a pool of water and fish-tailed and hit a tree”, Judge O’Connor was told.

The court heard he had no prior criminal convictions, is still in school and hopes to become a mechanic. The court heard the teenager is very good at home for his mother.

“I want to say sorry, it was a once off mistake, it will never happen again,” the boy told Judge O’Connor.

The boy wants to become a mechanic and bought the car cheap, replaced the battery and was planning on selling it, his solicitor Danny Nolan said. The solicitor said the boy, who was accompanied to court by his mother, is ashamed.

The court heard the teen bought the car on DoneDeal.ie four days before the chase.

Judge O’Connor told him his mother was lucky not be in the Coroner’s Court dealing with the death of her own child and possibly the deaths of other children as a consequence of his behaviour which “put a lot of people’s lives at risk”.

He said the boy could have been facing a trial for dangerous driving causing death or manslaughter.

He said it was a very serious case and adjourned sentencing for a probation report to be prepared.