DAMAGING four expensive sports cars at a dealership landed a man in prison for Christmas.
Neil Callaghan vandalised the luxury vehicles with a screwdriver at The Porsche Centre in Manchester Road, Bolton, on December 22.
He targeted a 2015 Panamera, a 2016 Boxster, a 2016 911 and a 2013 Cayenne parked outside the showroom.
Steve Webb, the dealer principal, said: “At 2.55am he damaged four cars and then went straight down to the police station – we’re 300 yards away – and told them what he had done.
“He handed himself in five minutes after.”
Mr Webb said the vehicles were on the forecourt as part of ‘demonstration line’ fleet used for customer test drives.
He said: “They were among five cars in a row but one of the ones in the middle he didn’t do for some reason.
“He smashed four windows and also tried to jemmy the door of one of them.
“It did impact the business because these were cars we had committed for customers to test drive and we had to put these appointments off.”
Mr Webb said it took two days to arrange the repair the windows of two of the Porsches and another two remain unfixed and out of service as the dealership has been so busy.
The bill for the replacement glass came to just under £3,000.
Callaghan admitted at Bolton Magistrates’ Court a single count of causing £2,500 of criminal damage encompassing all four Porsches and a single count of interfering with same four vehicles with the intention of committing theft.
But Mr Webb said Callaghan was not trying to steal the cars and would have been unable anyway without a key.
He said after the case was heard: “He didn’t try to steal the cars at all.
“Certainly three of the cars had just a small five or six inch hole in the window.
“If he had wanted to reach in to open the door the whole window would have fallen in.
“On the fourth car he put a screwdriver down the B-pillar at the back of the front door and tried to get in there but he didn’t actually open the door.
“He wouldn’t have been able to steal our vehicles without a key and they were all immobilised.”
Callaghan, aged 33, of Sandpiper Close, Farnworth, committed the offences while on a suspended sentence, prompting the magistrates to activate two older suspended jail terms.
He was sent to prison for a total of four weeks and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £115.
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