Digger chase sees man jailed for two years and three months by Carlow Circuit Court
Gardaí in pursuit of the stolen JCB through the by-roads of Co Carlow
A MAN who stole a JCB and was pursued by gardaí across Co Carlow last year was sentenced to two years and three months in jail and received an eight-year driving ban from Judge Eugene O’Kelly at a recent sitting of Carlow Circuit Court.
Martin Cunningham (44), with an address at Craan, Clonegal entered Seamus Fox Plant Hire, Tullow at around 6.30am on 5 March 2025 and stole a JCB. Det Garda Kieran Shields gave evidence that a man was seen on CCTV footage in the yard wearing a high-vis jacket and distinctive man bag.
The stolen JCB was later observed parked in Castledermot and the defendant was clearly identified entering a shop and shoplifting items from it to the value of €20. He was then seen by a member of the gardaí entering the JCB and driving towards Carlow.
Thus began a prolonged low-speed pursuit for the next hour-and-a-half, involving a garda helicopter and multiple patrol cars through rural roads across Castledermot, Carlow, Tullow and Ballon. Det Shields described this as an effort at “containment” as traffic was heavy with commuters and school runs.
The defendant repeatedly attempted to knock down trees using the rear hydraulic arm of the vehicle and drove with the front bucket down, collecting clay and then dumping it to prevent the garda car from catching him.
Mr Cunningham drove down a dirt road, collided with a fallen tree and, being unable to move the vehicle, exited it. He then ran across several fields. Helicopter support directed gardaí to his location and he was apprehended and arrested. Det Shields said the defendant was heavily intoxicated upon his arrest.
The defendant admitted during an interview with gardaí that he was the driver of the vehicle.
Det Shields said each of the 18 charges on the indictment refers to a specific time when Mr Cunningham engaged in endangerment of traffic or dangerous driving behaviour. Mr Cunningham pleaded guilty to eight charges, including unlawfully using a mechanically-propelled vehicle, two counts of endangerment and three counts of dangerous driving at a circuit court hearing date in November.
“By the grace of God, nobody was injured,” remarked defence barrister James O’Brien.
No garda vehicles were damaged either as a result of his actions. However, the damage to the JCB was valued at €11,000 and, as a result of a claim, spiked the victim’s insurance rate by €3,000.
Mr O’Brien explained to the court that his client was suffering from a severe addiction and that drugs were the “catalyst” for the offending. The offending was “not of a sober, calculated person, but of a man in the grips of an addiction, who was intoxicated and behaving erratically,” said Mr O’Brien.
He said his client’s life had become “disordered” and Mr Cunningham had been taking drugs the previous night. He pointed out that the defendant had said he was ‘disgusted with himself’ to the probation officer and had penned a letter of apology to the court. Mr Cunningham was now employed as a cleaner while in custody and attends addiction services, he said.
Barrister Brian O’Shea for the prosecution outlined that the defendant had 23 previous convictions, five of which were for driving while intoxicated, and one for dangerous driving. He was on bail for another offence, was disqualified from driving and was on a suspended sentence from Carlow District Court when he stole the JCB.
In handing down a three-year and nine-month sentence, with 18 months suspended, Judge O’Kelly took issue with videos of the pursuit uploaded to social media, which received thousands of views.
“It appears that certain persons sought to trivialise this incident on social media by posting video footage of the chase involved. Clearly, that is not an aggravating factor but it is aggravating that Mr Cunningham’s failure to stop when he knew he was being pursued led to so much of garda resources being expended on the chase.”
He commended the gardaí’s response as “completely reasonable and proportionate” in circumstances where JCBs have before been stolen to facilitate the theft of ATMs.
Judge O’Kelly described Mr Cunningham’s actions as displaying a “callous disregard for the safety of other road users” and pointed out that pursuing gardaí were the ones endangered by his driving. “It is not acceptable that any frontline workers, nurses, firemen or gardaí be put into real and substantial danger by nature of their work,” said the judge.
He sentenced Mr Cunningham to three years and nine months on the charges of endangerment, two years and three months concurrently for the unlawful taking of the JCB and four months concurrently for each of the dangerous driving charges. The prison sentence was backdated to when he entered custody in March of last year and he suspended the final 18 months of the sentence on condition that Mr Cunningham be subject to probational supervision.
He imposed a mandatory disqualification order of eight years on Mr Cunningham for the dangerous driving charges.
