Dublin mum-of-11 jailed for one month for shoplifting groceries worth €305

Bridget Lawrence (48), Gardener’s Hill, Balbriggan, appeared in custody before Drogheda Court after being refused bail a week earlier having been arrested on foot of a bench warrant for these offences.

Sgt John O’Hehir presented evidence that the defendant took groceries valued €200 from Pat’s Centra, Bettystown, on 1 October 2020.

The goods were recovered.

On the following 16 November at Dealz, she was accompanied by another person when, at 3.30pm, bags of groceries were placed in bags and put in a pram before they exited the premises.

The store remained at a loss of €105 for the goods.

There were 15 previous convictions.

Ms Lawrence’s solicitor said her client had been struggling at the time because of her husband’s alcoholism.

He was spending the grocery money on drink.

However, he hadn’t been drinking in over a year, while the defendant had engaged with a counsellor.

She described the week in custody as the worst of her life and was asking the court for a chance.

She was resolute in her commitment never to commit offences again. Judge McKiernan said there were two injured parties, one of whom was out of pocket.

The defendant had previous convictions, a ‘substantial’ number of which were for theft.

This was her third warrant on the matter and given the way she had met the cases, the judge said nothing was appropriate other than a custodial sentence.

The defendant had received ‘any number of chances’.

A one-month sentence was imposed on the second charge, backdated to when she went into custody.

The other charge was taken into consideration.