Hijacking a car to take them home after a Christmas drinking spree proved a costly mistake for four Kerrymen when they yesterday paid £4,000 in compensation to the man they held up.
Judge A.G. Murphy applied the Probation of Offenders Act to the four, John O'Brien (25), John McCarthy (29), Patrick O'Brien (18) and Michael Harrington (19), after they each paid £1,000 compensation to motorist Mr John Quirke.
The men - all from Killarney - had earlier pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to falsely imprisoning Mr Quirke from Rathmore on December 29th, 1997 after a drinking session in Kanturk, Co Cork.
John O'Brien, Arbutus Grove, McCarthy, Arbutus Grove, Patrick O'Brien, Hazelwood Drive, and Harrington, Ballyspillane, also pleaded guilty to threatening to damage Mr Quirke's car. The four held up Mr Quirke at Strand Street in Kanturk and threatened they would smash up his car if he did not chauffeur them to Killarney, 15 miles past his home in Rathmore.
Mr Quirke opted for the course of least resistance and agreed to drive the four hijackers to Killarney, the earlier sitting of Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard. The four had been drinking in Kanturk. Garda Joseph Sheehan said gardai in Kanturk learned of the hijacking when called to a melee outside a chip shop in Strand Street. People there told them what had happened.
They contacted the gardai at Millstreet, who intercepted the hijacked car in Rathmore just inside Co Kerry, and found the four in the car with Mr Quirke, said Garda Sheehan.
The threat was to Mr Quirke's car and not to the driver, the court heard. Mention was made during the journey of giving Mr Quirke between £20 and £70, but no contract was agreed. The men had been in Kanturk where they had been drinking all day but they had no lift home. Drink played a major role in the incident and they each apologised to Mr Quirke for the ordeal they put him through.
Judge Murphy said that what they had done was "of course preposterous", but they had offered compensation which satisfied the victim.