Conman who drove car with garda stuck on bonnet jailed
A SERIAL fraudster and conman who drove a stolen car with a garda on the bonnet for 500 metres told a judge yesterday that he wants to move on with his life.
Frankie Shanley (36) told Ennis Circuit Court: "I am in a situation for the first time in my life that when I do get released, I have nothing over my head and I can move on with my life -- which is all I want to do."
Judge Carroll Moran imposed a three-year jail term on Shanley over the incident, where he drove a stolen black BMW with Sargeant Joe Fallon on it.
Sgt Fallon, who was not in uniform, had been chasing Shanley who fled but was caught a few fields away.
The arrest of Shanley on March 2 last year in east Clare was the culmination of a two-year, nationwide trawl for him.
The Co Roscommon man pleaded guilty to taking a car without the consent of the owner; driving the car in a dangerous manner; giving a misleading statement to gardai; and refusing to stop the vehicle as required by a garda at Cappa, Whitegate, on March 2, 2011.
Previously, Shanley had turned himself in to gardai shortly after phoning Joe Duffy's 'Liveline' programme.
Records show Shanley has appeared charged with various offences at courts in Nenagh, Clifden, Killaloe, Ennis, Longford, Killarney, Clonmel, Bandon, Athy, Sligo, Cavan, Carrickmacross, Fermoy, Mallow, Bantry, Donegal, Tipperary, Castleblaney, Shannon, Dublin, Listowel, Kilkee, Clonakilty and Stroketown.
In court yesterday, Shanley said that he had been in and out of prison since 2006 but was now under the care of psychiatrist Tim O'Higgins in Cork Prison. "I am making progress. I have handed myself into garda stations in the past. I just want to move on with my life."
Uniform
Shanley is serving a prison term until January 2014 and he told the court yesterday: "I am sorry for what happened."
He said that he didn't realise that Sgt Fallon was a garda as he wasn't wearing his uniform.
"I was frightened and I'm sure the garda who was on the car was frightened. It is not going to happen again."
Garda Gerry Slattery told the court he had asked Shanley to stop driving and threw a rock at a window in the car to halt it.
Counsel for Shanley, Enda O'Neill, told the court he took from a psychiatric assessment of Shanley that "when he is stable psychiatrically, his legal problems decrease significantly".
"There is a relationship between offending behaviour and psychological difficulties and he is trying to rebuild his life," he said.
Judge Moran said: "The most serious matter is that Mr Shanley drove a car for 500 metres without stopping with a person on the bonnet and as to whether Mr Shanley didn't realise it was a garda, it doesn't matter, he should have stopped."
The sentence was backdated to September when Shanley first pleaded guilty. It will run concurrently to his current sentence.
- Gordon Deegan
Irish Independent
