Judge: I would close all cash for gold shops

A district court judge has slammed cash for gold shops and said he would close them down if he could.

At Mullingar District Court, Judge Seamus Hughes said such shops should be regulated, and equated them to scrap merchants who did not question where customers got stolen metal, and public ornaments and monuments to sell.

He was speaking as he jailed a heroin addict for 18 months after she stole jewellery from a house she broke in to and slept in for two nights while the owner was away.

Sharon Clarke, aged 29, of Market Square, Longford Town, was caught by Garda Lindsay Quinlan at the cash for gold shop on Dominick St, Mullingar, on Mar 5 as she tried to sell two rings worth €650.

One was gold and encrusted with diamonds while the other had a black stone. They were among €3,750 worth of goods taken from the house, including an engagement ring that was not recovered.

She was offered €90 for the rings while under the influence of heroin in the shop.

“What does that say for the cash for gold shop on Dominick St, Mullingar?” Judge Hughes asked, noting that a young woman “who doesn’t have the trappings of affluence” had been able to offer valuable gold items to a salesman who was happy to negotiate a trade with her, despite her obvious state. He said the conduct of the salesman was an absolute disgrace and had facilitated the commission of crime.

The salesman was no doubt aware of Clarke’s addiction but had still used the opportunity of “lining his own pockets”, he said.

“It’s an abomination, an absolute disgrace,” he said, pointing out that the salesman and owner did not represent other businesses in the county.

He also laid the blame for the two consecutive nine-month sentences he imposed on Clarke for theft at the door of the governor of the Dóchas Centre at Mountjoy Prison or the director of the Irish Prison Service; whoever was responsible for releasing Clarke four months in to a 12-month sentence for thefts.

She could not have committed the offences if she was still in prison, the judge said.

He said she should not have been let out, and advised a group of school children visiting the court that regardless of what sentence he imposed on Ms Clarke for the new offences, it might not stand.

“By the time she gets up the prison, her sentence will be changed by someone who doesn’t operate in a public forum as I operate in a public forum.”

If given nine months, she could be out in two or three weeks, he said, blaming a system which he said must cause frustration to the public, gardaí, and judges.

He said a lack of prison spaces was to blame and “the sooner that changes, the sooner society will be protected”.