A MAN who deliberately rammed a number of Garda cars with a stolen seven-tonne rigid truck was jailed for three years.
The shocking incident, which was compared to a scene from the computer game Grand Theft Auto, was carried out by Istvan Konyari in Cork in November 2023.
The Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard how he only stopped when a Garda fired a shot through the windscreen.
Konyari, 38, had gone on a spree of burglaries and thefts, including stealing a van which he exchanged for the stolen truck.
The Hungarian national had no previous convictions and had never been in trouble prior to him being assaulted and struck on the head with a 6kg kettlebell in November 2021.
Konyari, who previously lived at an apartment in Shandon Street in Cork, suffered mood swings and other changes associated with a brain injury.
Judge Helen Boyle said today that she believed he had reduced culpability because of his head injury.
She was told his family had returned to Hungary and once his sentence was served he too planned to return home.
Detective Garda Peter Quinn previously told the court that Konyari took part in a three-day crime spree which eventually ended in the car park of Dwyer’s Electrical on Forge Hill on the southside of Cork city.
He said Konyari put lives at risk as he rammed Garda cars in the confined car park space in Forge Hill on the morning of November 8, 2023.
He was only halted in his tracks when a single shot was fired through the windscreen of the truck he was driving.
Konyari then got out of the truck and put his hands over his head.
In his Garda interview, the 38-year-old compared his antics to the video game Grand Theft Auto, the cops and robbers video game.
Konyari felt that it was a case of “maximum stars” when a member of the Armed Response Unit fired the single shot through his windscreen to bring his escapades to a halt.
In the game stars indicate when a dramatic scene is potentially lethal.
Konyari carried out a number of other bizarre robberies during the crime spree, all of which received concurrent sentences from the judge.
He wrote a letter of apology to the court and to Gardai.
