'She is every shopkeeper's nightmare' - Kildare judge's description of woman in court

A woman who appeared before court on 17 mainly theft offences, was described as “every shopkeeper’s nightmare" by Judge Desmond Zaidan.

The woman, who is now 21, and was 17 when she committed some of the offences appeared at Naas District Court. She had addresses in Kildare town and Portlaoise.

Sgt Mary Meade said she was one of a number of people who walked out of the Judge Roy Beans restaurant in Newbridge without paying a €109 bill on February 21, 2022.

The offences took place between early 2022 and early 2023.

They include the theft of groceries from Aldi, Newbridge on April 11, 2022; €150 worth of items from TK Maxx in Newbridge and two pairs of Nike runners worth a total of €113 from.

These items were not recovered and in many instances the offences were captured on CCTV systems.

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Groceries worth €100 were taken from Lidl in Kildare town on June 9, 2022 and alcohol was stolen from Tesco in Kildare town on the same date worth €61.49.

Some €150 worth of items taken from Aldi, Newbridge, on September 28, 2022 were recovered. The defendant was accompanied by another person when items worth €208 were stolen from Penneys, Newbridge. On this occasion some of the items were recovered after security staff intervened.

An off licence in Kildare town, a Lidl store in Maynooth and a Centra outlet in Maynooth were targeted between May 31, 2022 and June 29, 2022.

Sgt Mary Meade said the defendant had incurred a number of post convictions, which occurred after these.

The court also heard that the defendant had been released five days previously from the Dochas prison and had made contact with the Probation Service, although she acknowledged that she had missed some previous appointments.

She had been in an abusive relationship with a person and was not allowed a phone. This person is now in jail.

The total value of the property was €1,500.

The court heard she was “bullied into” committing the offences and she is pregnant adn has three children.

Judge Desmond Zaidan comments that customers pay for these crimes because the cost of security is passed on to the consumer.

He imposed two consecutive ten months custody terms.