Bail available for teen charged in cherry-picker case

A teenager charged with allowing himself to be carried in a stolen cherry-picker, which was driven through Cork city, was remanded in custody with consent to High Court bail until January 20.

Patrick Costin, aged 18, of Cork Simon Community, is also charged with causing damage to a bollard at Oliver Plunkett St.

Solicitor Killian McCarthy said: “It is a relatively minor criminal damage, and it seems to be a relatively straightforward matter.”

Sergeant John Dineen said: “It is not that straightforward.”

Mr McCarthy said the teenager was “wondering how long this is going to go on”.

Judge Catherine Ryan noted that DPP directions were not yet available, and she said that some progress would be expected on the next day in court on January 20.

Mr Costin appeared by video link from prison. He is remanded in custody with consent to High Court bail, which has not yet been taken up.

Garda Paul McCarthy said that at 8.20pm on Sunday, November 2, gardaí responded to a report of a theft of scissor lift that was about to be collected and removed from Patrick’s Quay.

He said keys were not in the ignition but in one of the compartments of the cage so that it could be collected.

“It is alleged that on the quay, and on roads, and pedestrian footpaths along the centre of Cork city there was dangerous driving,” Garda McCarthy said.

“This incident occurred at a time when both road and pedestrian traffic in the city centre was busy, and the incident was captured on mobile phone cameras and shared on social media by multiple witnesses at different parts of the route. The scissor lift was brought to a stop by garda on South Gate Bridge where arrests were made.”