Court hears Cork woman has over 100 shoplifting convictions
A young Cork woman who has been convicted of shoplifting more than 100 times was back before the court for sentencing on another spree of thefts.
Judge Olann Kelleher said that he would take into consideration the background difficulties of Margaret Deasy, 30, of Cork Simon Community.
However, the judge said he also had to consider the safety and welfare of shop owners and the people they employed.
Deasy came before Cork District Court where she pleaded guilty to stealing goods from shops in Cork city nine times since February.
Judge Kelleher said that an overall sentence of 10 months was appropriate and he jailed her for that period.
As well as the thefts she admitted being threatening towards gardaí and refusing to leave the scene of a disturbance when directed by gardaí.
Sergeant John Kelleher said that this incident occurred at Lower Oliver Plunkett Street on January 11.
Sergeant Kelleher said gardaí directed a group of approximately 20 people to leave the area and all of them except Margaret Deasy agreed to go.
“She stood in the middle of the road blocking traffic. When directed to leave the area she replied to the guards, ‘Not a hope, go fuck yourselves’,” Sgt Kelleher said.
Deasy had 146 previous convictions, of which 112 were for theft. She had eight for engaging in threatening behaviour.
Her latest shoplifting offences between February and last Saturday afternoon saw her steal hundreds of euro worth of goods from shops in Cork city centre including Holland & Barrett, Debenham’s, Marks & Spencer, Aldi at Elysian and Mr Price on North Main Street.
Mr Buttimer said Deasy had consulted with him at length on Friday and indicated that she would be pleading guilty to all of the theft charges and then try to get on to a rehabilitation programme.
But events overtook her as a result of further shoplifting on Saturday afternoon which caused her to be arrested and come to court in custody today.
