This article is from page 10 of the 2008-01-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
A MAN who was suffering from de- lusions and believed he was being fol- lowed stole two cars and tried to take another, in three different towns, all in the space of a few hours.
Timmy Casey (30), of 3 Clonlong, Southill, Limerick, stole cars in Shannon and Ennistymon, and tried to take another in Lahinch, on May 29, 2006.
Ennis Circuit Court heard yester- day that Casey, who has 59 previous convictions, stole an Audi from the forecourt of a garage in Shannon, at 9.30am.
He had called to Shannon and
Roxboro garda stations that morn- ing and said he felt he was being fol- lowed in what was described in court as “a cry for help.”
He drove from Shannon to Corofin, Where he attempted to buy petrol. The alarm was raised after a petrol attendant in Corofin became suspi- cious when Casey was unable to find the petrol tank in the car.
He then drove to Ennistymon where he ran out of petrol and parked up that car.
He then stole another car in En- nistymon, where he told the owner he had a gun and demanded the keys.
That car was later seen speeding around Lahinch and Ennistymon.
“It was weaving in and out of traf- fic. There were school children on the road at the time,’ said Gda Alan Keane.
Shortly after 12 noon, he crashed that car into a BMW at Dough, La- hinch, where he tried to take another car and assaulted its owner.
He tried to pull the driver, a mid- dle-aged woman, out of the car, but she managed to hold on to her keys. He was arrested as he sat in the driv- er’s seat of that car.
Garda Keane said that he was “very incoherent and didn’t know what he was saying, at the time.
While he was sober, he was “defi- nitely under the influence of drugs”
and was “suffering from delusions,” said the garda.
Casey’s barrister said the incident “verged on a rampage on the roads.” She said her client could offer €3,000 in compensation.
Judge Carroll Moran accepted the money and directed that it goes to one of the victims.
“What would concern me now is that there would be any repetition of Wek
“It is important that he keep taking his medication, but how do you po- lice that,” said the judge.
He imposed a two-year jail term, suspended on condition that he co- operate with his doctors.