Tesco theft trio jailed by Kildare judge
CONVICTED
A Naas District Court judge jailed three men for theft offences committed in a Tesco store in County Kildare.
Judge Desmond Zaidan made the ruling at the courthouse on Thursday, October 5 last.
He convicted the following three men for the offences: Ionut Raducan, 27, his brother Claudiu Raducan, 26, and their friend Razvan Ciobanu, 27, all with an address given as 18 Castlecurragh Park, Mulhuddart Road, Dublin 15, County Dublin (however, all three men are remanded in custody on other matters).
Solicitor Seamus Boyle represented Ionut Raducan and Razvan Ciobanu, while solicitor Brian Larkin represented Claudiu Raducan.
Gardaí told the judge that the men carried out the theft at the Tesco store in Newbridge, while Mr Ciobanu carried out a separate theft at the Tesco store in Kildare town.
For the first offence, the trio went into the store in Newbridge on February 23 last, and stole a trolley full of alcohol worth just €944.89. These items were not recovered.
Then, later that same day, Mr Ciobanu went into the Tesco store located in Kildare town and stole groceries to the value of €116. These items were recovered.
All three men pleaded guilty to the offences.
Mr Ciobanu has nine previous convictions, while Ionut and Claudiu Raducan have nine and four previous convictions respectively (all these convictions are for theft offences).
When it was heard that no violence was used during the thefts, Judge Zaidan accepted jurisdiction over the case.
Mr Boyle told the judge that his clients had learned their lesson, and wished to return to their native country of Romania once they were done serving their current sentence.
He added: "One of them even asked if he could be deported back to Romania, but I told him the courts aren’t allowed to."
The judge agreed, and responded: "No, we can’t, because Romanians are EU citizens."
Mr Larkin added: "They are apologetic, for what it’s worth."
When the judge asked what happened to the alcohol that the men stole, Mr Larkin replied: "Well, someone might have had a good night… whether it was them or not, I don’t know!"
Judge Zaidan said that he took onboard the lack of violence, their co-operation with gardaí and the guilty pleas submitted, but pointed to the trio’s previous convictions for theft offences.
"I have to be realistic here, I don’t think they are learning from their past behaviour," he added.
He imposed an 11 month custodial sentence on each of the men, and took Mr Ciobanu’s solo charge into consideration for his verdict.
The judge also set an appeal bond at €500 for each of the men.