Man who went on rampage in stolen fire engine pleads guilty to 21 charges
A CO Antrim man who caused an estimated £1.5m worth of damage when he took a fire engine on a joyride has admitted a catalogue of offending including criminal damage and motoring offences.
During his drive of destruction in the early hours of March 5 last year, Ross Clarke not only crashed into the fire station wall and six terraced homes, but also careered into seven parked cars and a lorry.
The vehicles were strewn across the road — one flipped on its roof — with the fire engine, its blue emergency lights still flashing, finally coming to a halt in the front garden of one of the houses on Larne’s Glenarm Road.
Residents were met with a startling scene when they were awoken around 4.30am by the crashing appliance, with the incident previously described by a lawyer as like a trailer for the next Hangover movie.
Clarke, who had never been behind the wheel of a car, never mind a fire engine, pleaded guilty to 21 charges, including the aggravated taking of the fire engine and causing dam- age to Agnew Street fire station. The 20-year-old, originally from Fairway in Larne, but now with an address in Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, also admitted causing criminal damage to the six houses, a shop doorway, nine vehicles, including the fire engine, attempted burglary, dangerous driving, driving without insurance and failing either to report, stop or remain at the scene of an accident.
Judge Paul Ramsey QC told Antrim Crown Court he would review the case next month and set a possible date for his sentencing.
Defence barrister Neil Moore told an earlier court hearing that Clarke has a “severe learning disability” and also revealed that he had never driven a vehicle before, which may account for the damage to Larne Fire Station, caused as he attempted to reverse into the depot.
The same court also heard claims that at one stage the defendant did not go down a street because it was one-way, and on another occasion he even stopped the fire engine at a set of red traffic lights.