Man steals a Bus Éireann bus to get from Donegal to Dublin

One can never condone wrongdoing, but surely there is a funny side to the story below. As someone who has an interest in public transport I have to admit I laughed out loud on reading this report in The Irish Times yesterday.

Dublin Bus, part of the CIÉ  Group, as is Bus Éireann, has an onboard mechanism that allows control to keep an up-to-the-minute record of where the bus is. And this man was able to drive a Bus Éireann bus from Donegal to Dublin. On arrival in Dublin he had the decency to leave it at the side of the road with the key in the ignition; it’s hilarious.

And a wise judge not to commit him to prisons that are already overcrowded.

A young man stole a Bus Éireann vehicle in Co Donegal and drove it to Dublin after being told another bus was full.

Derek Dunne appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court where he entered a plea of guilty and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

Dunne, of Markievicz House, Dublin, is charged with unlawfully taking the bus at Bus Éireann Bus Station on Ramelton Road, Letterkenny on July 10th, 2023.

The 24-year-old appeared before Judge John Aylmer for sentencing after the incident during which he drove the €390,000 bus from Letterkenny along the M1 motorway before abandoning it in Sheriff Street in Dublin’s north inner city.

The court was told that the bus was not damaged and still had the key in the ignition.

Garda Pearse Glynn, led by State barrister Fiona Crawford, outlined the incident to the court. He said gardaí received a call from Bus Éireann on the morning of July 10th, 2023, to say one of their buses was missing from the Letterkenny depot and later learned that a bus had been found abandoned in Sheriff Street in Dublin.

Dunne was identified and he was arrested and interviewed on September 12th. He made full admissions.

CCTV footage showed a male in a green hoodie arriving in Letterkenny at 10.35pm and was seen waiting until 11.06pm until the bus driver had left. At 11.52pm, he entered a number of parked buses before stealing one.

Before mitigation, the judge said the offence merited a sentence of two years but he reduced it as the accused had only one previous conviction for speeding, was co-operative with gardaí and had entered an early guilty plea.