Five years for committing crimes while on bail

A young Ballymun man has been sentenced to five years in prison by Judge Frank O’Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he committed two offences, one while on High Court bail.

Mark Eribo (aged 22) of Silogue Road pleaded guilty to burglary on August 9, 2007 at SuperValu, Lorcan Avenue, Santry and to robbing Maseema Kabeeb of €1,000 on September 21, 2007 at SuperValu, Belgard Square West, Tallaght.

Judge O’Donnell said he had seen a number of cases where the defendants were granted High Court bail and then went on to commit "a string of offences".

He noted that Eribo went into the Santry shop with another person and, having bought a drink, took the €20 and €50 notes out of the till. He said the staff member was in fear, but the crime was caught on CCTV and the defendant’s fingerprints were also found on a bottle.

The judge said Eribo was ‘caught red-handed’, climbing over a wall with implements for use in breaking into houses. But he was let out on bail by the High Court and committed the second offence on Mr Kabeeb, who was extremely scared.

The accused, who was known to the gardaí for more than five years, said he was a drug addict and was under the influence of drugs at the time. He had 34 previous convictions for theft, drunk driving, threatening and abusive behaviour as well as road traffic offences.

Ms Sandra Frayne BL, defending, handed in a probation report and letter from Fr Peter McVery, but no urine testing had been done. The judge noted that his probation report said he was still at high risk of re-offending, lacked motivation and had limited victim impact awareness.

Judge O’Donnell sentenced him to five years. He suspended the last two years on a number of condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for four years.