Dundalk court: Jailed for possession of stolen BMW

A man who admitted collecting a high-end BMW that was stolen during a burglary at a holiday home in County Cork, and fitting it with false number plates, was jailed at Dundalk Circuit Court last week for a year and nine months.

Evaldas Petrauskas (34) formerly with an address at Castletown Road, Dundalk pleaded guilty to possessing stolen property and possessing a false registration plate, at Seatown, Dundalk on May 23rd last year.

The court heard last Thursday how the car, a BMW 730, was stolen in Castletownbere in the early hours of May 22nd last year, and it was tracked to Dundalk the same day through the onboard GPS system and via CCTV cameras and Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems along the route.

When it was located by gardai in Seatown it was fitted with a different number plate – a British registered one, but the serial number matched and it was seized for a technical examination.

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Central Criminal Court

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CCTV footage showed the defendant driving the car at five different locations in Dundalk and around midday he was seen to park up and walk off towards a nearby pub.

He told gardai he was given €500 to collect the car and fit it with the new plates, but he did not identify the person involved.

The Lithuanian national, who has lived north and south of the border for a number of years, had 59 previous convictions, 42 of them from outside the jurisdiction including Northern Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Judge Dara Hayes imposed concurrent sentences of two years and three months with the final six months suspended on his own bond to keep the peace for 12 months. 

The sentence was backdated to February 25th last.