Dangerous driver ‘addicted to fast cars’ gets four year sentence

A man who stole vehicles while committing house burglaries in order to feed his “addiction to fast cars”, has been jailed for four years with the final year suspended following a high-speed chase with gardaí.

Jamie Marshall (28), who was driving a stolen BMW at the time, admitted two counts of recklessly endangering the public on August 31st 2016.

Marshall, of Altamira Terrace, Thomondgate, Limerick, had 63 previous convictions, and was serving a ten-year driving ban at the time.

During the chase, Marshall drove at speeds over 100km/h through parts of Limerick city centre and the suburbs, and put the lives of pedestrians and other motorists at risk.

Earlier on the same day Marshall had burgled four houses.

Marshall told Detective Garda Brian Culbert, who arrested him, he was “addicted to fast cars... Fast cars are my heroin”.

Judge Tom O’Donnell described Marshall’s driving as “a very serious threat to the public”.

In 2008, Marshall was hospitalised in a critical condition after a car he was driving crashed into a wall at Woodcock Hill, near Cratloe, Co Clare. A man in his early 20s and two teenage girls were also injured in the crash.

Marshall also has previous convictions for possessing drugs, driving without insurance and or a licence, and theft.