A man described by a judge as "confidence trickster" who used a false identity to get mobile phones and steal a car was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment yesterday. Stephen Mangan (21), of Dunne Street, Dublin, used false identity in the name of Stephen Wright to take a Dahaitsu Charade for a test drive from car showrooms at North Strand on April 4th.
He failed to return the vehicle, but the garage-owner, Mr Gerry Hall, spotted Mangan driving around in the £5,000 car three days later and it was located and recovered by gardai.
Mangan also used the false identity to obtain nine mobile phones from Superphone, Patrick Street, on the pretext that he was the director of a security company.
Judge John Neilan imposed the prison sentence after hearing the defendant had two previous convictions.