Kildare court: Sentence imposed on Castledermot man

A Castledermot man was sentenced for multiple offences by a Naas District Court judge on Thursday, September 21.

Patrick Stokes, with an address given as 49 Leer Avenue in Castledermot, but who is serving a custodial sentence for other offences, appeared before Judge Desmond Zaidan on the date in question via video-link.

The 42-year-old admitted to committing a number of offences throughout County Kildare.

On February 11 last, Mr Stokes stole 17 bottles of Smirnoff vodka from a Lidl store, worth a total of €391.

These items were not recovered, according to gardaí.

On May 25 last, gardaí said that Mr Stokes allegedly went into a County Kildare service station and was spotted 'rummaging around' the staff room on CCTV, looking for items 'with intent to commit an arrestable offence.'

Lastly, on August 9 last, it was heard that he went into the Elvery's store on the Main Street of Naas.

He spotted a pair of tracksuit bottoms, removed the security tages, and proceeded to put a pair of tracksuit bottoms into his own tracksuit bottoms, and walked out of the store without paying for them.

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Upon reading the case details, Judge Zaidan remarked: "The brand name was Under Armour... you couldn't make it up!"

In addition to these offences, which he pleaded guilty to, Mr Stokes is accused of stealing around €5,995 from a safe located inside Inver Service Station in Athy on August 11 last.

Judge Zaidan refused jurisdiction over this offence.

Gardaí noted that Mr Stokes has 66 previous convictions, with his last theft conviction dating to 2020 for an offence committed in 2018.

Defending barrister Aishling Murphy told the judge that her client had struggled with an addiction to both heroin and crack cocaine addiction for the last 20 years.

She added that he planned to seek treatment for his addiction as soon as he is realised from prison.

Ms Murphy also said: "The court knows that when someone is in the throes of addiction, they are not thinking straight; they are just thinking about getting their next fix."

Judge Zaidan also remarked that 'the common thread' in the offences was a lack of violence from Mr Stokes in order to obtain the goods he stole.

He also took into consideration Mr Stokes' personal circumstances and his guilty pleas.

The judge ultimately decided to take into account the first offence, and imposed a five-month sentence on each of the other two offences (totalling ten months in custody imposed on Mr Stokes).

Ms Murphy asked Judge Zaidan to backdate the sentence to when he first went into custody on September 7 last, which he agreed to do.

The case regarding the alleged Athy offence will resume on October 5, which is when a book of evidence is due to be presented.