Garda at road check stopped his own stolen car

A garda on traffic duty could not believe his eyes when he saw his own stolen car approaching him at a Dublin checkpoint yesterday.

Two weeks earlier his Fiat Leon had been stolen when his Co Meath home was burgled.

The car keys were taken, and the car removed from the driveway. His motorbike and leathers were also stolen in the burglary.

At a checkpoint at Celbridge road at around 3pm yesterday, he recognised the car but not the licence plates. He stopped the vehicle, driven by a 19-year-old man. When he looked inside and confirmed it was his car, he arrested the man. A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed between 500gm and 1kg of cocaine valued at between €60,000 and €100,000.

The man is being detained at Lucan Garda station. The cocaine was sent to the Garda forensic laboratory in the Phoenix Park.

The garda, a member of Dublin Castle traffic division, was on duty as part of the bank holiday weekend road safety campaign.

Gardaí acknowledge that the chances of the arrest were "fairly slim", and only that the garda on duty recognised his own car the vehicle would probably have got through the checkpoint undetected.

A Garda spokesman said it was hoped this arrest would lead to the recovery of the motorcycle and other items.