A 17-YEAR-OLD boy has been detained for eight months for mugging Luas passengers, a near-miss motorcycle collision with an elderly couple, and drug dealing.

The youth appeared again before Judge Paul Kelly at the Dublin Children’s Court, after pleading guilty to a raft of theft, drugs and motoring offences from 2020 until February 2022 in Tallaght, starting when he was 15.

He cannot be named due to his age.

The court had heard the boy and his mother had been affected by his housing issues.

Their former home came under attack and was no longer safe, but a friend took him in to live with his family.

Judge Kelly noted the teenager was unsuitable for community service. Despite being supervised for a year and nine months, it was “going nowhere”, and he failed to engage with the Probation Service.

The court heard he had snubbed chances to avail of other services to help him and divert him from offending.

The judge also banned him from driving for two years and fined him €300.

The court heard that gardaí had him under surveillance on 28 November, 2021, and watched “a large number of suspected deals”.

He was searched and found in possession of €1003 worth of crack cocaine, split into 36 deals, 24 deals of heroin worth a total of €756, and €20 of cannabis.

The court had heard that on 8 September, 2020, then aged 15, he stole from a young woman travelling on the Luas near the Cheeverstown stop in Tallaght.

The victim “felt uncomfortable” as a group of youths, including the defendant, approached and took a phone from her hand.

On another date in the same area, he took €50 and a phone from another person.

Judge Kelly heard that on 10 September, 2020, a young man boarded the Luas at the Cheeverstown stop and had his watch and phone taken by youths.

The victim “received a punch in the face” and was cut around his eye because he was wearing glasses.

Gardaí seized €100 worth of cannabis from him after a foot chase in Tallaght on 2 February, 2021.

The court heard he led gardaí on a short chase as he dangerously drove a stolen motorbike on the afternoon of 25 September, 2021.

Then, after ignoring signals to stop, he went on a path and “continued up the path, narrowly missing an elderly couple” before he “lost control”.

Following a foot chase, he was caught with €800 worth of cannabis on 17 February, 2022.

Judge Kelly noted a Probation Service assessment that the youth was “vulnerable to more older criminalised individuals in the community”.

He had also shown no intention to engage with services to assist him.