A man has been sentenced to serve five months in jail for theft and burglary at two city centre businesses late last year.
Martin Ward (37), with an address at Gilmartin Road, Tuam, pleaded guilty to one count each of burglary and theft at Flanagan’s Dancewear, and Tribes on William street.
Galway District Court heard that on November 7 of last year the owner of Flanagan’s Dancewear reported that the store had been burgled overnight.
She had locked up the business at 5:30pm the evening before, and when she opened up the next morning at 8:30am an Apple iPad worth €350 was missing.
The next month, on December 3, a student who was working at Tribes had left a rucksack containing her phone, student card, purse, and €30 in cash behind the counter while she dealt with a customer.
The student later noticed that the rucksack was gone. And while a member of the public turned it in to the police after finding it discarded some days later, all the property in it was gone.
In both instances Ward was captured on cctv footage committing these crimes.
The court heard that Mr Ward has a total of 86 previous convictions including 12 for burglary and 8 for theft, and is currently serving a 14 month prison sentence for multiple thefts.
€250 in compensation for the lost iPad was brought into court to be paid over to the victim of the burglary by the defence.
Judge Mary Fahy noted that students who take jobs on top of their time in college are working hard, often for minimum wage “Whereas people like Mr Ward just take, take, take, and give nothing back.”
She suggested that he should try to “get back into the community and work, like that student had to do”.
Judge Fahy gave Ward a five month prison sentence for the burglary at Flanagan’s Dancewear, which will begin after the conclusion of his current sentence, and a four month concurrent sentence for the theft at Tribes.
