Dublin man gets four years for robbing mobile phone and bottle of wine from Spanish waitress

An unemployed Dublin man has been sentenced to four years in prison for the robbery of a mobile phone and bottle of wine from a Spanish restaurant worker.

Daniel Dos Santos (24) of Nicholas Street in The Liberties, Dublin had been found guilty of the offence by an 11-1 majority during a jury trial at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in May.

He had separately pleaded guilty to other crimes committed while on bail for the robbery, the burglary and criminal damage of a house in Churchtown and unlawful carriage in a vehicle, for which he received suspended sentences.

In relation to the robbery conviction, the court heard that a Spanish waitress was grabbed by two men on Bridge Street in Dublin at around 11.30pm on May 10, 2016 after leaving the restaurant where she worked during which Dos Santos hit her in what Judge Sinéad Ní Chúlacháin described as “an unprovoked and violent” attack.

At a sentencing hearing yesterday, the judge said she accepted Dos Santos was not the prime mover in the incident.

In a victim impact statement, the waitress said she no longer walked alone or went out at night and had lost €665 in earnings by having to attend court for the trial which she had found “very distressing”.

The court heard that Dos Santos had also caused criminal damage to property after he was confronted in the driveway of a house at Lakelands Avenue in Churchtown on January 26, 2018 on suspicion of being in the house when he threatened to stab the owner, James Byrne.

Dos Santos then smashed the rear window of the owner’s car which was parked outside the house before also breaking the front window of the sitting room where Mr Byrne’s family were watching TV.

Judge Ní Chúlacháin observed that the defendant had made threats of “credible, gratuitous violence” in view of the full family.

Mr Byrne provided a victim impact statement in which he said he had feared for his life and those of his family as the panic in the house was “indescribable”.

The judge said the incident had a long-lasting and significant impact on the family’s sense of sanctuary in their own home.

The court also heard that Dos Santos had pleaded guilty to allowing himself to be unlawfully carried in a vehicle on October 10, 2018 which was driven at a garda patrol car before crashing in Leopardstown.

The owner of the car, a single mother of two children, had suffered a financial loss of €11,000 after the car was written off.

The court heard that Dos Santos had six previous convictions and was unemployed.

The judge said his personal circumstances meant there was a significant risk factor of him re-offending.

Judge Ní Chúlacháin noted Dos Santos had come under the negative influence of his brother and peer group but had taken steps to address his drug abuse.

She sentenced him to four years for the robbery of the mobile phone and bottle of wine backdated to when he was placed in custody on May 20, last.

Sentencing Dos Santos to consecutive terms of two and half years for the burglary and one year for unlawful carriage because they were committed while on bail, Judge Ní Chúlacháin suspended them for a period of three years on his release from prison.