Man who drove stolen Donegal bus to Dublin charged with stealing ticket machine

A man who stole a Bus Eireann vehicle and drove it from Donegal to Dublin has been back in court after stealing a bus ticket machine valued at €1,000 from another bus.

Derek Dunne received a suspended 18-month jail sentence last month after pleading guilty to stealing a bus from Letterkenny bus station on July 10, 2023. He appeared again at Letterkenny District Court where he was charged with stealing a ticket machine valued at €1,000 and also damaging a van belonging to a Bus Eireann employee.

The 24-year-old Dubliner appeared by videolink at Letterkenny District Court from Cloverhill Prison, where he is serving a prison sentence. The court was told the accused, of Markievicz House, Dublin, has 63 previous convictions, many of which are for dangerous driving, driving without insurance and the unauthorised taking of vehicles.

Garda Sergeant Jim Collins outlined the details of the incident to the court. He told how Bus Eireann employee Kieran McShea reported the theft of a ticket machine from a bus at Bus Eireann's Letterkenny station at Ramelton Road, Letterkenny.

He also reported that a van belonging to an employee had been damaged. Gardai viewed CCTV footage and it showed the accused entering a bus between 2:55am and 3:05am on June 23, 2023. He was also seen causing damage to a white Berlingo van to the value of €500 by scraping the side of the vehicle.

Dunne was later arrested and made all admissions to the incident. The court was not told if the ticket machine had been recovered. Barrister for the accused, Mr Senan Crawford, BL, said he appreciated that the court would be concerned with the number of previous convictions he has and admitted that "his record is far from unblemished to put it mildly."

He added that his client was a young man who had cooperated fully and that on this occasion he made a grave mistake on this occasion. Judge Emile Daly sentenced Dunne to three months in prison for the Section 4 theft of the ticket machine and two months in prison for the criminal damage charge, with both charges to run concurrently.

Letterkenny Circuit Court Judge John Aylmer last month imposed an 18-month suspended jail sentence on Dunne for the theft of a Bus Eireann bus in what he described as “a very unusual offence.”

He described Dunne’s actions as “unusual and rather weird behaviour” saying he was told he had a long fascination with heavy goods vehicles.