Mum-of-4 stole €600 of groceries from store

A mother of four who was in dire financial straits filled a trolley with almost €600 worth of groceries and cosmetics and rolled it out of a supermarket without paying.

Judge Olann Kelleher told the 24-year-old yesterday it was a case which merited a prison sentence in light of the facts of the case and her previous convictions for theft.

However, the judge said because of her age and her four children he was prepared to send the case to the probation service for it to do a report on the accused in advance of sentencing. He told defendant Miranda Keenan, 24, formerly of Ardcairn Villas, Ballintemple, Cork, that it was in her interest to co-operate with the probation service as she was at risk of jail.

Judge Kelleher put sentencing back for two months to allow time for the report.

Inspector Ronan Kenneally said the accused and others went to Tesco in Mahon Point, Cork, on September 8, 2014, and they filled a trolley with €586 worth of toiletries and groceries and left without paying.

Defence solicitor Shane Collins-Daly said the defendant found herself in difficult domestic circumstances and also lost her social welfare for a period.

“She co-operated in full, she told gardaí, ‘I went in and I took the items. I had no intention of paying for them’,” the solicitor said on her behalf.

Inspector Kenneally told Judge Kelleher of the accused woman’s previous convictions, the most serious of which was one of impeding the prosecution of a man knowing or believing that he was guilty of robbing Jameson bookmakers at Togher Road in Cork in June 2013.