Pair jailed over theft of ticket machine

TWO men who were caught on video as they emptied a street parking ticket machine of €250 were jailed yesterday.

Gregory Kelleher, aged 30, of Greenfort Avenue, Clondalkin, and Ion Anton, aged 27, of Southern Cross Avenue, Inchicore, both Dublin, admitted stealing the money from the machine at St Agnes Road, Crumlin, in the early hours of September 10 last.

They denied and were acquitted of damaging the machine, which had to be replaced and cost €6,500.

The court was shown CCTV video of the pair shining a torch as they appeared to work underneath the machine. When gardaí stopped them, Kelleher had a plastic bag which he tried to conceal, Garda Damien Kirwan told Dublin District Court. In the bag were €250 in coins, two miniature screwdrivers and a small flashlight.

A Dublin City Council traffic department official said a small hole had been drilled in the machine.

Counsel for the defendants said: “It was an opportunistic crime. They pleaded guilty to removing the money, but they did not commit the damage.”

Judge Gerard Haughton said: “It defies reason to suggest that in all of Dublin they just happened to come across a parking meter that had a hole drilled in it.”

He jailed Kelleher for four months and Anton for two months.