Jail for ‘fourth stupid mistake’

Two hundred boxes of cigarettes were stolen from a Cash & Carry by a man acting with three others who stashed the goods into bags and left the store to get into a car parked outside.

Rupi Munteanu, aged 25, of 3 Mill Road, Millstreet, Co Cork, appealed yesterday against a four-month jail term for stealing the €2,000 worth of cigarettes from MP O’Sullivan’s at Doughcloyne industrial estate at Sarsfield Road last July.

Dennis Healy, solicitor, said the accused was working for the first time in his life. He said he loved having a job which he held for the past nine weeks and would be staying out of trouble in the future.

Judge Brian O’Callaghan at Cork Circuit Appeals Court affirmed the four-month sentence imposed on Munteanu. “This is his fourth conviction for theft. You can make one mistake, you can make two mistakes but he cannot make four stupid mistakes,” the judge said.