Athy man jailed for 11 months for steel theft
Photo for illustrative purposes only
A MAN who stole €500 worth of steel from the Bord na Mona facility at Kilberry was jailed for almost a year at Athy District Court recently.
Joseph Carthy (33), with an address at Ardrew Halting Site, Athy appeared in court from custody where he is already serving an unreported sentence, with a release date in October.
Mr Carthy was in court to face four outstanding charges, and 11 further summons dating back over four years.
When he stood behind the large glass wall of the dock to face his offences Judge Desmond Zaidan noted his dour expression, and smiled to Mr Carthy’s solicitor and said: “oh, he’s not impressed with you, Ms McManus!”.
“Oh, he’s very impressed. I just told him to look sad,” quipped Ms McManus.
Sergeant Dave Hanrahan began to detail the litany of outstanding offences, which began with a driveaway with €20 diesel from Amber Filling Station on the Stradbally Road on 5 March 2022.
Following his arrest that day, he could not produce a licence, and this was again repeated three days later after another stop in Athy, a pattern that continued throughout his list of summons over the following months.
However, the one deviation from this was on 6 June that year when Mr Carthy stole a quantity of steel from the then Bord na Mona site in Kilberry.
Of all the outstanding road traffic offences, the sergeant made a point of noting one speeding infraction when Carthy was noted doing 63kph in a 30kph zone on 30 September 2024.
Sgt Hanrahan informed the court how Carthy had nine previous convictions, eight for road traffic offences, and one for having no insurance.
“He has entered a guilty plea,” declared Ms McManus.
“My client has seven children, and at the time of the offences he would have had severe mental health issues,” she added.
“Those seven kids miss him dreadfully, because he used to bring them to school.
“I’m asking for a chance, the mother of his children is here in court to support him,” she concluded.
However, she was unable to persuade the judge on this occasion, and he sentenced Mr Carthy to 11 months in prison for the Bord na Mona theft, and a fine of €400 for the speeding offence.
All other 13 charges an summonses were taken into consideration.
