Jail for serial car thief who wrote off car in city centre dash

By Isabel Hayes

A serial car thief who stole a car from a tourist and drove it dangerously around Dublin city centre in the middle of the day has been jailed for nine years for multiple driving offences.

On another occasion, Carl McGuinness (30) tried to steal a car from a man while armed with an axe, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

McGuinness, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to a string of offences involving the taking of vehicles, attempted theft and dangerous driving around Dublin on dates between August 2024 and May 2025. He has 106 previous convictions, 95 of which are for road traffic offences.

McGuinness is a recidivist who showed “clear disdain” for other road users who were exposed to repeated incidents of his dangerous and appalling driving, Judge Martina Baxter said while sentencing him.

He was on bail during some of his offending and a bench warrant had been issued the day before he engaged in further dangerous driving, the court heard.

“He had no regard for the harm he was causing,” Judge Baxter said. She accepted that McGuinness showed remorse in the wake of each incident, but said he needs to address his victim insight and the “cycle of relapsing and offending”.

She handed down a sentence of 10 years, which she backdated to May 2025 when McGuinness went into custody. She suspended the final year on a number of conditions to allow for “genuine rehabilitation” and she disqualified him from driving for 10 years.

In relation to the first incident before the court, McGuinness pleaded guilty to allowing himself to be carried on a motorbike without consent of an owner in Dublin city centre on August 28, 2024.

The court heard the owner of a €5,000 Ducati motorbike found it had been stolen from where he locked it outside Peter’s Pub in Dublin 2.

When the vehicle was recovered at nearby Mercer Flats, the gears and wires were found to have been taken and the motorbike had to be written off.

McGuinness was seen on CCTV footage helping to push the motorbike to the flat complex with a co-accused, and also riding on it at one point.

“The very definition of a joyride,” Detective Garda Joseph Heafy told Eimear Delargy BL, prosecuting.

McGuinness also pleaded guilty to attempting to rob a car from a man at Main Street in Finglas in the early hours of October 5, 2024. He was armed with an axe during this incident.

The victim in this case, who had just finished a night shift in Tesco, had got out of his car to take money out of an ATM in Finglas village when McGuinness appeared brandishing an axe and tried to drive the car away.

However, the key was in the owner’s pocket so the car stopped a few metres away and McGuinness fled the scene. He was arrested shortly afterwards.

Three months later, McGuinness stole a Toyota Yaris car from a driver who had got out momentarily to access the car park gates at the Gresham Hotel city centre car park around 3pm. This man was a tourist who had rented the car.

He drove off at speed, driving down the wrong side of several city centre roads, which were filled with traffic, and breaking red lights. He was pursued by gardai throughout but failed to stop.

He hit a Dublin Bus during the incident and the stolen car was eventually found crashed and abandoned in the middle of Aston Quay. It had to be written off due to damage, at a cost of €27,000, the court heard.

McGuinness was apprehended nearby in Dublin 1 and was taken to Mountjoy Garda Station where he was found to be in possession of a small quantity of crack cocaine.

He pleaded guilty to a string of offences in relation to this incident on January 13, 2025, including unlawful taking of a car, dangerous driving, damaging the bus and the car, driving without a licence or insurance, three counts of dangerous driving and possession of cocaine.

The final incident before the court took place on May 24, 2025, when a woman who had been staying overnight with a friend in Ballybough, Dublin 3, put her phone on to charge in her Audi car.

When she returned a few minutes later, she discovered the car had been stolen from where she parked it outside. Her Louis Vuitton handbag and phone were in the car.

The court heard McGuinness was observed driving the car erratically, to such an extent that two of the wheels were lifted off the ground at one point when he tilted the car. He drove the car at speed around Finglas, crashing into a van at one point, and was pursued by gardai.

He was eventually arrested at Cappagh Avenue and was found to be intoxicated. The mobile phone was recovered but the handbag was not. The car was written off. By this time, McGuinness was on bail for some of his previous offending and a bench warrant had been issued for his arrest when he failed to appear before court the day before.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, stealing a handbag and a phone, failing to report an accident to gardaí, two counts of dangerous driving and driving while intoxicated.

Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, said his client had a long history of drug addiction. He does well in custody but has a history of relapsing upon his release, the court heard. He has lost his relationship due to his addiction issues, but has the support of his mother and grandparents, defence counsel said.

He is “always extremely remorseful about what he has done when he is on drugs”, Mr Le Vert said.