Addict robbed off-licence weeks after first attempt

A man who failed to rob an off-licence when a staff member fended him off with a stool returned a couple of weeks later armed with an imitation gun and robbed the same premises.

Zack Moloney, aged 41, with an address at an apartment at Highfield West, College Rd, Cork, was jailed for three years, with half the sentence suspended yesterday.

Moloney admitted attempting to commit a robbery at the Carry-Out off-licence on Gilabbey St, Cork, on Dec 28, 2012. He also confessed to committing a robbery of €70 in coins from the same premises on Jan 14.

Garda Cathy Houlihan testified at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that, in the attempted robbery, Moloney was armed with a syringe and threatened a member of staff.

The assistant picked up a stool behind the counter and fought off the raider who then fled the scene.

However, he returned on Jan 14 armed with an imitation firearm to the same premises. Again he threatened the member of staff and demanded the contents of the till. He got away with €100 in coins.

Garda Houlihan said CCTV captured the incidents and Moloney pleaded guilty to both crimes.

Peter O’Flynn, defending, said the defendant was a chronic heroin addict who committed these offences to feed his addiction.

“He was released from prison in November last year after serving a seven-year sentence.

“Unfortunately, shortly before finishing his sentence he relapsed. When released he went straight into injecting heroin. He was a heavily addicted heroin and it was out of sheer desperation that he took these measures.”

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin accepted the defendant was a heroin addict who took treatment but relapsed. “When he got out of prison he relapsed into his violent ways very quickly.”