Wednesday 28 October 2026Compiled from published reports. Every claim links to its source.

Ireland Crime

Every case followed from the first report to the sentence, or to where the reporting stopped.

Case No. 2762Burglary, criminal damage, organised crime offences · Co. Dublin · 3 Jul 2023

Two Romanian men jailed for total of 10 years over car ram-raids on Dublin and Kildare shops

Ricardo Stancu, 19, and Daniel Murgea, 31, were sentenced to five and six years respectively at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for ram-raiding three commercial premises with cars in July 2023. A third man, Ionut Leonard Petriu, 38, who pleaded guilty to assisting the group, had his sentencing adjourned to March 2025.

  1. Reportednot reported
  2. Arrestednot reported
  3. Chargednot reported
  4. In courtnot reported
  5. Verdictnot reported
  6. Sentenced11 Dec
reportedhappened, not reportedlatest stagenot yet

Key facts

consolidated from all reports
20 statements extracted from the articles
  • whatTwo members of an organised crime gang used cars to ram raid commercial premises (irishtimes.com)
  • whatA 5-series BMW was stolen from the Clondalkin car dealership at 12.30am on July 4th (irishtimes.com)
  • whatThe gang left the 3 Store with nothing because the mobile phones were kept in a safe (irishtimes.com)
  • whatTotal damage to the 3 Store was €49,459 with €1,051 damage to stock and €7,000 lost from lack of trading (irishtimes.com)
  • whatApproximately €16,000 worth of damage was caused at the Whitewater Shopping Centre Vodafone shop (irishtimes.com)
  • whatMore than €4,000 worth of damage was caused to the gates at the Clondalkin car dealership (irishtimes.com)
  • whereA Vodafone shop at Whitewater Shopping Centre in Newbridge was targeted (irishtimes.com)
  • whereA car was rammed through the gates of Leinster Motors motor dealer on the Naas Road in Clondalkin (irishtimes.com)
  • whenThe burglaries and vehicle thefts occurred on July 3rd and July 4th, 2023 (irishtimes.com)
  • whenThe Vodafone shop was targeted just before 2.30am on July 3rd, 2023 (irishtimes.com)
  • weaponA Citroen C5 was used to break through the gates at Leinster Motors (irishtimes.com)
  • investigationFour suspects were identified from CCTV using the 5-series BMW as a getaway car (irishtimes.com)
  • chargeStancu and Murgea pleaded guilty to burglary, criminal damage and organised crime offences (irishtimes.com)
  • chargePetriu pleaded guilty to assisting the group (irishtimes.com)
  • courtPetriu's case was adjourned to March 20th with a probation report ordered (irishtimes.com)
  • sentenceStancu was sentenced to five years in prison with the final 12 months suspended (irishtimes.com)
  • sentenceMurgea was sentenced to six years (irishtimes.com)
  • otherAll three defendants are from Romania (irishtimes.com)
  • otherPetriu is a father-of-three working in a hotel who came to live in Ireland in 2018 (irishtimes.com)
  • otherStancu went back to Romania as a teenager before returning to Ireland (irishtimes.com)

The reporting

newest first
  1. 11 Dec2024
    Sentencedirishtimes.com, first report
    Two members of gang that used cars to ram raid commercial premises jailed for total of 10 years

    Sentencing hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court; Stancu and Murgea jailed, Petriu adjourned to March 2025 for probation report.

    convicted, Ricardo Stancu, 19, male, named, non-irish (judged from name)Ricardo Stancuconvicted, Daniel Murgea, 31, male, named, non-irish (judged from name)Daniel Murgeaconvicted, Ionut Leonard Petriu, 38, male, named, non-irish (judged from name)Ionut Leonard Petriu