Father and son sold on a motorhome that had been stolen from the UK

By Isabel Hayes

A father and son sold on a motorhome that had been stolen from the UK and fitted with fake plates eight times to an unsuspecting buyer who used his inheritance to buy it, a court has heard.

John Tracey (52) and Jordan Keogh (29) sold the motorhome to the victim for €17,000 in March 2021, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday.

The motorhome, which had a value of £49,000 sterling, had been stolen from its owner in the UK in 2018 and “cloned” so that it was unrecognisable as a stolen vehicle, Detective Garda Will Saunderson told Simon Donagh BL, prosecuting.

It was estimated to have changed licence plates about eight times, the chassis number had a fake number welded on top of it and it had a false tax disc.

“It had been given a completely new identity,” Det Gda Saunderson said.

Tracey and Keogh, both of Rowlagh Park, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to handling stolen property in Dublin on March 6, 2021.

The court heard they sold it to a man after he took it for a test drive and inquired about the logbook.

The buyer was provided with a logbook the following day and paid €17,000 in cash.

This money had come from his deceased mother’s inheritance, the court heard.

Shortly afterwards, the buyer had concerns about the motorhome, which he raised with gardaí.

A garda search on Interpol revealed the motorhome had been stolen and the buyer was left out of pocket.

The court heard Keogh, who played a bigger role in the sale of the motorhome, paid off €10,000 for a drug debt he owed and spent the remaining €7000 from the sale of the motorhome.

He later told gardaí he intended to pay the victim back but he went into custody for other crimes shortly after this incident.

He is currently serving a seven year jail term for drug and proceeds of crime offences.

Both men entered the guilty pleas on the first day of their trial, for which witnesses had travelled from the UK.

Keogh has 61 previous convictions while his father Tracey, who runs a tow truck business, has 12 previous convictions, the court heard.

Pieter Le Vert BL, defending Keogh, said his client traded two trucks for the motorhome.

He ran his own business doing up cars and selling them on, the court heard. He has a lengthy drug history but is doing well in custody, counsel said.

A letter from Tracey’s wife was handed into court.

Sentencing them yesterday, Judge Martin Nolan said both men had enough experience of vehicles to be sceptical of this particular motorhome.

“I think they did know there was something suspicious about it and were seriously reckless in the way they dealt with this vehicle,” he said.

He handed down a three year suspended sentence to Tracey on the condition that he pay the victim the sum of €7000 within a two year period.

In relation to Keogh, the judge said he did not think he deserved to have an additional prison term imposed on him.

He handed down a five year sentence which he suspended in full on condition that Keogh pay the victim the sum of €10,000 within 18 months of his release from custody in May 2028.