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A PROLIFIC SHOPLIFTER with nearly 200 convictions was caught with a stolen mountain bike after a garda spotted him walking down the road with the bike still locked to a piece of railing.
Thomas O’Driscoll, aged 35, with an address in Gloucester Diamond Park, Dublin, was arrested after the garda saw him carrying the bike, which was still attached to the piece of railing, along a city centre street.
O’Driscoll, a drug addict with 193 convictions, immediately admitted it was stolen property, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday.
He pleaded guilty to one count of possessing the stolen mountain bike on 4 August last year.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of stealing €1,300 worth of clothing from Urban Outfitters in Dublin on 25 July last year, one count of possessing a stolen ladies coat on 2 August last year and one count of trespassing and theft at a holiday apartment letting office in Temple Bar on 31 August last year.
Sentence
He was jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Martin Nolan noted O’Driscoll was a prolific shoplifter with a “huge record of conviction”.
“It seems Mr O’Driscoll can’t stop himself from stealing,” the judge said. He backdated the sentence to last September when O’Driscoll went into custody.
Garda Carl Bolger told Maurice Coffey BL, prosecuting, that O’Driscoll was seen on CCTV footage making off with a quantity of clothes.
Just over a week later, he was spotted by a garda acting suspiciously on the street. Gardaí questioned him and discovered the coat worth €125 stolen from Marks and Spencer.
O’Driscoll was on bail for that matter when he was stopped on the street with the stolen mountain bike in tow. No owner of the bike was ever identified.
Later that month, O’Driscoll walked into Key Collection in Temple Bar, a holiday property letting office, and walked out with a suitcase.
His previous convictions include theft, criminal damage, burglary and misuse of drugs.
Derek Cooney BL, defending, said his client had a troubled history and carried out the offences to fund his “chaotic and chronic drug lifestyle”.
The court heard O’Driscoll’s father was stabbed to death in front of him when he was 11 years old. O’Driscoll left school shortly afterwards as a result, he did not sit any state exams and has literacy issues.
He started using drugs at the age of 11 and was jailed as a young teenager, which resulted in him becoming addicted to crack cocaine, Mr Cooney said.
He was shot in the back in a pub a number of years ago and lost a kidney. He also has a hole in his spine.
He has a history of self-harm and has attempted to take his own life, the court heard.
He has had two stints in rehab but has failed to get clean, the court heard. He is now undertaking a methadone programme in custody.
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And Martin Nolan cant seem to give out longer jail sentences. Absolute joke of a system. Guards doing all the work for then to have it slapped in their face.
@Paddy Norton: Agreed that its a slap in the face for the Gardai. I would suggest addiction (and its consequences) be considered a medical issue first. Locking this guy up and throwing him some methadone wont change a thing when he gets out.
@Honeybadger197: 200 convictions? Never let him out.
@Grotmaster: Nope, imagine what addressing his addiction could achieve?
@Paddy Norton:
Donal you really believe a long sentence would inject some brains into this unfortunate amadan.
@Donal Hanley: Not a chance. I’d rather see him sterilised than get a long jail term.
@Paddy Norton: He handed down a two and a half year sentence which is quite lengthy considering the offence in question and the guilty plea.
They Judge should pass sentence as normal, and then multiply it by the number of convictions you already have. So if a first timer gets 3 months in jail for some crime or another but commits a burglary when they get out. Simply allocate an appropriate sentence (2 years?) for the burglary and then double it to 4.
When they get out and decide to steal a car and go joyriding, give them 6 months, but being third conviction they get 18 months. This will soon rid us of the lads with hundreds of convictions
@Cicero: Lunacy. Say a person accumulates a string of minor road traffic convictions over the course of their life and gets caught stealing a mars bar when they’re in their 60s. By your logic we’d be throwing away the key. Thankfully our Constitution precludes insane notions like the one above.
@I’m not wavy gravy: 3 strikes and your out, don’t steal….your choice when your on strike number 2 !!
@Gerry Cummins: What are you even on about? Do you not realise we don’t have a three strike policy in Ireland?
The headline here should be that Martin Nolan actually jailed someone. Should be longer with the amount of convictions he has, but still – progress.
@Paddy Reid: how is this progress?
Nolan constantly gives very lenient suspended sentences to violent thugs and nonces so how can giving jail time to a non violent thief be considered progress while the violent thugs and nonces still roaming the streets?
@Matt Beaumont: Will be appealed and he will be released no doubt. Need firing squads for these lads.
I bet his nickname is “Lucky”.
Would the person who stole the bicycle on Merrion Square please leave back the railings
Perhaps a new law called “30 strikes and you are out”?
It would be cheaper to give him heroin on prescription than all the court appearances, free legal aid and cost of housing him in prison at the stage
This person is a total mess….living a chaotic life…im not sure if it’s possible to get this square peg to fit into the round hole of everyday society.Not sure if he has any concept of right and wrong at all…a jail term is a waste of time in terms of punishment or rehab. It will protect society from his habitual crime..for a short while..and then back to his life habit…Criticising the judge is fair enough…but our society is increasingly producing this new layer of a social group…So many people existing this way
193 convictions just imagine what this guy is worth to the legal sharks @ up to 3K a time, No wonder they want to keep him on the streets!
@John Mc Donagh: you could be right about a symbiotic relationship between criminals AND justice system, gardai and legal profession. How do you breakup that cosy cartel.
Irish need to bring their brains to the Polling Booths. 3-Strike Rule!
@Neuville-Kepler62F: The legal profession and the justice system would not exist without the criminal. You can’t have one without the other.
Give him 10 lashes of a whip, and 5 years in prison.
>He was jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday.
he’ll be out in just over one. and he wants his railing back!!!
193 convictions. Imagine how many they couldn’t prosecute for and how many he didn’t get caught for.
Being a thug as a teen is somehow a get out of jail free card in Ireland. Nothing to dissuade criminality as a career.
Genuine question, is there any political party who cares at all about crime?
And it only took 200 convictions… A bit harsh on the lad.
More prisons should be built, and current prisons should be expanded. A new law should be introduced that states if you currently have 3+ convictions and are convicted one more time, you serve a 5 year term. No ifs, ands or buts.
If criminals actually saw proper consequences for their actions, crime world fall.
Just my unqualified opinion.
Shouldn’t the headline read, “Prolific shoplifter jailed after being caught walking with stolen piece of railing still locked to bike?”
I read the headline and the sub-heading and was ready to be outraged but reading on further down the article it is difficult not to feel sorry for Thomas. His childhood was very rough. It would be hard for anyone to emerge from that sort of upbringing to be a functioning adult let alone a model citizen. Society has let him down badly. And no I don’t know what the solution is.
Someone put this f*cker down.
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