Crime rampage sees man returned to Poland

MAN CRASHED CAR, FLED SCENE AND ASSAULTED OWNER OF HOUSE HE BROKE INTO

A MAN who nearly hit two walkers while driving drunk, flipped the car off a ditch onto its roof, then fled the scene to enter a house a kilometre away where he punched the homeowner twice in the face got a jail sentence at Listowel District Court on Thursday - suspended on condition that he leave Ireland within 48 hours and return to Poland.

Judge James O’Connor heard that Mr Mateusz Suchecki - of no fixed abode, Listowel - had sufficient money to return home and also compensate his victim, thanks to relatives at home in Poland getting the money to him.

He has been in custody since his arrest in Ballylongford on the day of the rampage - August 20. Gardaí told the court he crashed into a ditch after ‘narrowly avoiding’ two walkers, hit a ditch, flipped the car onto its roof which then slid for a number of yards. “He exited the vehicle and fled the scene by running . He went into a neighbouring home a km away, removed keys from a garage then entered the rear door of the dwelling where he was confronted by the owner who he hit twice in the face with his fist,” Sgt Kieran O’Connell told the Court.

Gardaí caught up with Mr Suchecki shortly after arriving at the scene and he was identified by the walkers and the victim; pleading guilty to a raft of charges from dangerous and drunken driving to burglary at Listowel District Court on Thursday. The court heard he had 187 mg of alcohol per 100mls of blood present in his system. Solicitor Pat Enright said his client accepted he was ‘off his head with drink’. Judge O’Connor ordered he pay €500 in compensation to the victim, and that he quit the country in 48 hours to return to Poland or face ten months’ imprisonment. Suchecki undertook to go home.