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Dziugas Odinas: fuel thefts, a 12-car Garda pursuit and €60,900 in drugs

A one-year prison term for eleven drive-off fuel thefts did not end the offending. In 2023, Dziugas Odinas drove against traffic in a pursuit across Dublin and Meath, was released on bail and three months later was caught carrying drugs for sale or supply.

Published 31 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger
12 Garda carsPlus air support in pursuit
€60,900Estimated drug value
5 yearsFinal 12 months suspended
~€396,288Four-year prison-space benchmark

Dziugas Odinas, whose name appeared as Odinas Dziugas in reporting on his earlier convictions, is a Lithuanian national. Irish court reports described him as a Dublin man and gave addresses in Clonsilla and Blanchardstown. Lithuanian publications reporting the 2026 sentence identified him expressly as Lithuanian.

The located record does not establish when he arrived in Ireland, the basis of his residence or whether any removal process followed the sentence. This file records nationality because it is directly reported by Lithuanian news organisations; it does not invent an immigration history from his name or address.

Eleven petrol-station thefts in sixteen days

The first detailed sentencing record located for Odinas concerns a concentrated run of fuel thefts. He pleaded guilty to eleven counts of theft from service stations on or around the M1 between 6 and 21 August 2021.

The vehicle was a grey Toyota Corolla, but the registration displayed on it changed. Odinas drove to locations including Circle K in Dunshaughlin and Applegreen stations in Balbriggan and Castlebellingham, filled the car and left without paying. On some visits he also removed containers from the boot, filled those and drove away.

The total loss was €1,636. By the November 2022 sentence hearing, the court was told that Odinas already had six previous minor convictions, mainly for theft. The eleven admitted fuel offences therefore did not comprise his first appearance on a criminal record.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed one year in prison, backdated to 9 May 2022, when Odinas had entered custody. His defence referred to an apology letter, family support and past factory work. The sentence report recorded the judge expressing the hope that Odinas would change his habits.

Wrong-way driving towards a Garda patrol car

Shortly after 12.30am on 29 May 2023, Odinas was driving a Volkswagen Passat with two passengers on the Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock. A Garda inspector in a marked patrol car saw the Passat coming at high speed on the wrong side of the road, directly towards gardaí.

The inspector had to take the patrol car onto a grass verge to avoid being struck. When its blue lights and siren were activated, Odinas drove away at speed. What followed was not a single dangerous manoeuvre but an extended pursuit across north Dublin and into Co Meath.

Odinas drove against the flow of traffic on the M50, entered slip roads in the wrong direction and crossed red bollards. He drove the wrong way around the busy Dublin Airport roundabout. Other motorists were repeatedly forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

On the M1 he performed a U-turn. He repeatedly switched off the Passat's lights in an apparent attempt to evade detection. Twelve Garda vehicles from different stations became involved; the Garda National Air Support Unit joined the operation about 30 minutes into it.

A stinger and a multi-car box-in

The pursuit ended outside Gormanstown, Co Meath. Gardaí deployed a stinger that punctured all four tyres, then used patrol cars to box in the Passat. Odinas got out and, from that point, accepted arrest and behaved properly towards the officers, the court was told.

The Passat was uninsured and untaxed. A small quantity of cannabis for personal use was found on Odinas and a large knife was found in the car. The final sentencing reports identify his admitted driving offences as dangerous driving and endangerment at locations in north Dublin.

Those legal categories matter. Endangerment addresses intentionally or recklessly engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious harm. The sentence was not based merely on an administrative road-traffic breach: the judge found that Odinas had put himself, his passengers, gardaí and other road users at risk through extremely dangerous driving.

Released on bail, then caught with €60,900 in drugs

Odinas was released on bail after the pursuit. Three months later, on 3 August 2023, plain-clothes Garda members stopped him on Ballymun Road in north Dublin.

They found 34 bags of MDMA and four bags of ecstasy tablets. The tablets carried an image of Donald Trump's face. The total estimated street value put before the court was approximately €60,900; the guilty plea also covered alprazolam tablets.

Odinas told Gardaí that he was being paid €300 to transport the drugs. A Garda witness accepted that there was no intelligence suggesting he occupied a place in a criminal hierarchy and that he appeared to have been moving the consignment. That limitation should be retained: the evidence established possession for sale or supply, not that he directed a wider drug organisation.

It remains a serious and distinct offence committed after his release on bail for the high-risk pursuit. Odinas pleaded guilty to possession of MDMA, ecstasy and alprazolam for sale or supply, as well as dangerous driving and endangerment.

The pleas and the five-year sentence

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, the offending was resolved by guilty pleas rather than trial verdicts. The reported pleas were:

Judge Sarah Berkeley initially adjourned the case after hearing the evidence in February 2026. On 12 May 2026, she said a seven-year headline term would have been appropriate and imposed consecutive sentences producing a total of five years. The final twelve months were suspended, leaving an effective custodial component of four years, subject to the normal operation of prison law.

The suspension requires Odinas to engage with the Probation Service for two years after release. He was also disqualified from driving for five years.

Mitigation accepted by the court

The judge considered reports connecting Odinas's offending to drug addiction beginning in his teenage years. His defence said he was 22 at the time of the 2023 offences and had since matured.

The court also heard that he had a supportive partner and young child and would have a structure of support upon release. Testimonials were said to show genuine efforts to turn his life around. Those points were accepted in mitigation and help explain the reduction from the seven-year headline figure and the suspended final year.

They do not erase the sequence that the sentence had to address: an existing theft record, eleven more thefts, an earlier one-year term, a wrong-way pursuit requiring extensive Garda resources and a serious drug offence committed while on bail.

Case chronology

What imprisonment may cost

The Irish Prison Service reported a 2024 average cost of €99,072 per available, staffed prison space per year, excluding capital expenditure. Applying that system-wide average to the four-year unsuspended part of Odinas's sentence gives a gross capacity benchmark of approximately €396,288. Applying it to the full nominal five-year term would produce €495,360.

Neither figure is an invoice for this prisoner. The calculation uses an annual system average, not marginal expenditure attributable to an individual. It does not predict time served or account for remand credit, remission, release decisions, fixed prison costs or future changes in the annual average.

It also excludes the resources used by the Garda inspector who first had to evade the Passat, the twelve patrol cars and their crews, air support, the stinger operation, investigation, prosecution, courts, legal aid, probation supervision and the earlier fuel-theft proceedings. No reliable person-specific total for those services was located, so none is invented here.

Nationality established; immigration status not established

Both Lrytas and 15min, major Lithuanian-language news publishers, identify Dziugas Odinas as Lithuanian in reports of the Irish proceedings. Their spelling, Džiugas Odinas, also helps resolve the reversed presentation “Odinas Dziugas” used in the 2022 Irish fuel-theft reports.

The sources do not establish whether he is an Irish citizen as well, the date or route by which he came to Ireland, or his present immigration status. Lithuania is an EU member state, and an EU citizen's residence and removal position cannot be inferred merely from a criminal conviction. Any claim about a removal decision would require its own official record.

What the public record establishes

This is a record of escalation documented through convictions and guilty pleas. By 2022, Odinas had six earlier minor convictions and then received a year for eleven admitted fuel thefts. In 2023 he drove directly towards a Garda patrol car, against motorway traffic and around a busy roundabout, drawing twelve Garda cars and a helicopter into the pursuit.

After being released on bail, he was caught carrying about €60,900 of drugs and pleaded guilty to possessing them for sale or supply. Mitigation reduced the sentence, but the court still imposed five years with only the final year suspended.

The defensible accountability question is therefore concrete: how did a repeat theft offender progress from a custodial term to a pursuit endangering the public, then commit a serious drug offence after obtaining bail? The open reports establish the sequence. They do not, without further records, establish a failure by any named immigration authority or justify claims about Odinas's legal status.

Sources and record notes

Record checked: 31 July 2026. The final case status is based on the May 2026 sentencing reports. An absence of a located published appeal outcome is not treated as proof that no notice of appeal exists.