A MAN who claimed that he had no idea a dog in his possession was stolen from the local area was convicted of its theft at a recent sitting of Clonakilty District Court.
Giving evidence to Judge John King, Garda Keith O’Leary from Skibbereen Garda Station said that he went to a property at 7 Inse Álainn in Skibbereen with an ISPCA inspector on March 25th 2021 following a call from a concerned member of the public. When they arrived, they discovered nine dogs in a yard area at the back of the house. The dogs were mostly beagles, as well as some terriers.
The ISPCA officer carried out a welfare inspection and checked the dogs for mandatory microchips and discovered that only one of the dogs was chipped. Gda O’Leary said that while the inspection was being carried out, some residents of the house, including Mark O’Driscoll (35), returned home. Mr O’Driscoll confirmed he was the owner of the dogs.
Gda O’Leary said: ‘I was aware of a missing dog in the area that matched the dog that was microchipped. Mr O’Driscoll told me he had bought the dog a year ago, but I later confirmed with the owner that it was his missing dog.’
Mr O’Driscoll told the court that he had been the owner of 12 dogs but had sold two of them. He said he kept the dogs for hunting and ‘rabbiting’. He claimed that he had bought the chipped dog from a seller he had found on a Wicklow hunting Facebook page. He said he had met the seller near Cork Airport who arrived in a white van and he had paid him €200 for the dog.
Prosecuting, Inspector Roisín O’Dea said that the dog was reported missing about five months before it was found at Mr O’Driscoll’s address in Skibbereen. She said that at the time of the inspection, Mr O’Driscoll said he had bought the dog a year before. She said that later he claimed he had owned the dog for only three months. Mr O’Driscoll claimed that he had never said he owned the dog for a year.
Inspector O’Dea said that Mr O’Driscoll should have been aware that a beagle would normally sell for €500 or €600 and that a dog for sale for €200 should have raised suspicions.
Defence solicitor Colette McCarthy said that Mr O’Driscoll was calm and co-operated with gardaí at all times. She said he exercised the dog and used the dog for hunting in the local area and would not have done so if he believed it was stolen. She said there was a ‘reasonable doubt’ as to whether Mr O’Driscoll had stolen the dog.
The court heard that O’Driscoll had 34 previous convictions, including for theft and public order offences.
In 2015 he was sentenced to nine years, with the last two suspended, for robbery. The court heard that he is currently unemployed and receiving social welfare.
Summing up, Judge King said that at the very least he had been ‘very green’ in the matter and convicted him of the theft of the dog, imposing a fine of €500.
