This article is from page 14 of the 2009-03-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE swift actions of an eagle-eyed Ennis resident assisted in the pros- ecution in an investigation into a stolen sports car.
However, when it came to court last week, the case was struck out.
Paul Daly (19), of Considine’s Road, Cloughleigh, Ennis, was ac- cused of unlawfully taking posses- sion of a car without the consent of the owner, at Mill Road, Ennis, on May 20, 2008.
The owner of the car told Ennis District Court that he parked his sports car on the Mill Road in Ennis at 7pm on the evening of May 20.
When he returned 90 minutes lat- er, the car was gone.
It was later found by gardai, hav- ing been crashed.
A resident on the Lahinch Road in the town told the court that he was at home on the evening of May 24 Ee
He heard a car being driven past his house on its rims and it got ‘louder and louder”.
There were two individuals in the car. He took photographs of the two men who had come from the direc- tion of the car, as they passed by his house.
“Things didn’t seem right. The front number plate was missing,” he said. The court heard that this was the car that had been stolen.
The photographs were presented to the court – on a computer – and defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said, “The man in the stripy thing 1s my client.”
Garda Chris Power told the court that he was involved in the investi- gation and said he arrested the ac- cused in Ennis town on the evening of May 24, on suspicion of allowing himself to be carried in a stolen ve- hicle.
Ms Godfrey applied for the case to be struck out, on a number of
grounds.
She said that her client had been accused of an offence on May 20 and “there 1s no evidence adduced by the state to support the allegation that my client took possession of a car on May 20.”
She said the owner of the car did not see who had taken it and the res- ident’s evidence related to May 24.
She said one of the men in the photograph “probably was my cli- ent, but that’s irrelevant to the pros- Torn CO) 0 ae
Inspector Michael Gallagher said he accepted the solicitor’s point and Judge Timothy Lucey struck out the charge.
“What happened on the 24th can- not necessarily be connected with what happened on the 20th,” said the judge.