Woman threw €500 worth of stolen clothes in river

Brand new fashion clothing worth €500 was thrown into the River Lee when the woman who stole them was pursued by a store detective.

The bag of clothes thrown into the river at Pope’s Quay in Cork city centre washed up a few days later on the bank of the river at Glounthaune. The clothes were unusable.

Margaret Deasy, aged 25, of no fixed address, was yesterday jailed for six months for the crime.

She had numerous previous shoplifting convictions.

Insp John Deasy said the accused had gone to the same store twice in one day to steal a total of €500 worth of clothing.

Insp Deasy said the woman first stole €200 worth of goods from H&M on Opera Lane at 10.45am on Sept 13, 2013, and returned at 12.45pm the same day to steal €300 worth of clothes.

The inspector said she threw them in the river when she was followed after the second incident, and that the bag contained all of the goods from both incidents.

Emmet Boyle, solicitor, said Deasy was also pleading guilty to a burglary in Dec 2012 where she entered an unoccupied house and stole a laptop computer.

That case had been listed for trial yesterday but when the defendant was shown evidence of her fingerprint being found in the house, she pleaded guilty before the matter went to hearing.

Judge Olann Kelleher imposed a total sentence of six months on the defendant yesterday, consisting of six months for the burglary and lesser concurrent sentences in respect of the other charges.