Phone thief jailed after refusing to complete community service

0
4956
Galway Daily c

A man who received community service for multiple phone thefts has been sent to prison for failing to complete it after more than a year and a half.

In July of 2018 Moses Akani (21), with a former address at Fear An Rí, Doughiska, was ordered to complete 150 hours of community service by the in lieu of a five month prison sentence.

This was after he stole six phones, with a total value of more than €2,500, from different women at city nightclubs in 2016.

The Probation Service moved to re-enter the case last year after he failed to complete this community service despite being given multiple opportunities.

Of the 150 hours of community service which were ordered by the court, just 18 hours were left to finish.

Solicitor for the defence Sean Acton said that his client is currently serving an unrelated three month sentence, and is due to be released at the end of April.

He added that since this first came before the District Court in 2018, Akani has become homeless.

Judge Mary Fahy said that it would be unfair to impose the full five months as Akani is already in prison.

The judge reduced the sentence to three months, to run consecutively to the prison sentence he is currently serving.