A Limerick student has avoided jail after he was found guilty of possessing a stolen jeep and tricking a customer into paying a deposit for it.
Christopher Kelly (31) walked free from Dublin Circuit Criminal Court with a five-year suspended sentence and the warning that if he ever 'put a foot wrong', he would serve the whole term.
Judge Patrick McCartan described Kelly as the 'bad apple' of his family who had 'brazenly lied through his teeth' to the jury in the face of overwhelming evidence against him.
He acknowledged that Kelly was trying to 'change his ways' and doing well in his studies at the University of Limerick.
Kelly has previously served two and half years in jail for handling and possessing stolen vehicles, after his garage was raided by gardaí in April 2009.
In the case before the court today, the father-of-one was convicted by a jury of possessing a stolen Toyota Land Cruiser at Old Lucan Road in Palmerstown on September 28th in 2007.
He was also found guilty of persuading Paddy O'Brien to pay a deposit of €500 for the stolen jeep at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre on September 15th, 2007.
Lastly, he was convicted of attempting to induce Mr. O'Brien to buy the jeep for €25,000 on September 28th of the same year.
Kelly, of Newtown, Castletroy, Co. Limerick, had denied all charges but was convicted after a three-day trial in March 2014.
The court heard Mr. O'Brien became suspicious about a land rover he intended to buy because the price of €25,000 was below market value.
Detective Garda Gerard Kenny told Vincent Heneghan BL, prosecuting, that he was contacted by Mr. O'Brien who had already paid over a deposit of €500.
Gardaí examined the jeep and noticed the chassis number did not correspond with the engine number.
It emerged the chassis number belonged to a jeep which had crashed near Headford in Co. Galway and had passed through several pairs of hands before ending up with Mr. Kelly.
The court heard Mr. Kelly welded off a large portion of the chassis from the crashed jeep and attached it to a jeep stolen from another man in November 2006.
He was arrested in April 2009 and denied changing the chassis, although his counsel said he now accepts the jury's verdict. He has 32 previous convictions, including three for possessing stolen cars.
Most of the convictions are for driving offences and he has been disqualified from driving for 15 years.
Damien Colgan SC, defending, said his client is studying technological management at UL. Mr. Kelly was praised as 'highly respected and proactive' with 'positive leadership skills' in references from his college teachers and Student Union officials.
Kelly works in a voluntary capacity helping other students and has been on medication for Attention Deficit Disorder since he was released from prison in September 2012.
Judge McCartan ordered him to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for five years.
