Burglar rang for taxi home from house near scene of the crime

After ransacking a house in an upmarket Limerick suburb, a burglar went to a nearby house where the unsuspecting resident allowed him to phone a taxi to make his getaway.

Weighed down with goods worth about €10,000 and which included gold, jewellery, clothing, bottles of spirits, and iPhones, Marcus Graham left Ashbrook on Limerick’s Ennis Road in the taxi.

Graham told the taxi driver he had no money to pay for the fare and offered bottles of stolen spirits instead.

When Det Garda Donal Moynihan arrested 42-year-old Graham at his home in Davin Gardens, Caherdavin, a short time later he was wearing a watch and a jacket stolen in the burglary, Limerick Circuit Court heard.

He tried to claim the jacket was a “hand-me-down”, before admitting the burglary.

Det Garda Moynihan said a resident of Ashbrook left their home at around 1pm on August 1, 2015.

When the resident returned at around 5.30pm, he discovered the house had been broken into and a large amount of personal property stolen.

Gardai discovered that Graham had phoned for a taxi from another house in Ashbrook after the burglary.

Gardaí suspected that Graham, who was well known to them, was involved and went to his home where they found most of the stolen property. Graham was wearing a watch and jacket stolen from the house.

A quantity of jewellery was not recovered.

Jailing Graham for three years, Judge Tom O’Donnell commended Det Garda Moynihan for the early arrest of Graham following the burglary.

Passing sentence Judge O’Donnell said: “He has turned to serious crime to feed his drug addiction. An aggravation factory was the violation of the victim’s home in broad daylight and the loss of property.”

He backdated the sentence to August 2015 when Graham was taken into custody after his arrest.