Gardaí find car used by gang to ram patrol car

Gardaí have located the car used by a travelling criminal gang to ram a garda patrol car earlier this week, which resulted in an officer from Co Cork having to be taken to hospital for treatment.

Detectives are hoping that a forensic examination of the black Audi A4 will yield some clues as to the identity of the gang involved in the ramming incident in Co Waterford at 9.30pm on Tuesday night.

The officer, who is from Rathcormac in north Cork but stationed in Cappoquin in West Waterford, was injured when his patrol car was rammed by the gang between Cappoquin and Dungarvan.

The garda, who is in his 30s, was taken to Cork University Hospital where he was kept overnight as a precautionary measure amid fears that he had suffered from whiplash injuries.

Gardaí said the Audi car used by the gang was damaged during the ramming incident and found by abandoned in woodland not far from the scene of the incident but crucially not burned out.

It has since been removed by gardaí to a secure location where garda technical experts have begun a forensic examination of the vehicle for fingerprints and DNA evidence.

The incident happened after a criminal gang, believed to be operating out of Clondalkin and Tallaght, were seen leaving a house on College Street in Fermoy after a burglary around 8pm on Tuesday.

Gardaí have established that the car was purchased in the UK and brought into Ireland and fitted with false plates matching a similar car legally registered to another person uninvolved in crime.

Gardaí in Fermoy received a good description of the gang’s car and circulated it nationally in the belief that the gang would use the vehicle to try and make their way back to Dublin.

Garda believe the same gang carried out a series of burglaries in Tipperary last week, and they are investigating if they are also behind a spate of burglaries in Kanturk and Newmarket in North Cork.