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.