A 20-year-old who has 72 previous driving convictions on a 15-page criminal record has been sent to jail for three years after a judge finally lost patience with him.
Joseph McManus from Belfast appeared in court charged with his most recent offence of stealing a taxi outside a pub in May 2005. After taking the vehicle he sped away from police and managed to escape by driving on the wrong side of the road and losing his pursuers in traffic.
He was eventually arrested a month later and, appearing at Belfast Crown Court last week, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, having no car insurance, aggravated vehicle theft and driving while disqualified.
Refusing to be lenient with the youngster, Judge Kennedy said, "I do not think your youth is a mitigating factor because these are offences which are committed on our streets all too often by young men like you, and it must be brought home to them that they face custodial sentences of some length."
Hearing about the case, a spokesman from Hoot Car Insurance Services, the young driver car insurance experts, said, "When this lad gets out of prison I think he'll find it a struggle to get a cheap car insurance deal."