A CLONAKILTY man who was found drunk in the storeroom of a local restaurant by staff over the Christmas period had started a fire in there after he locked himself inside, a court heard last week.
Barry Roche (26) of 11 Convent Way, Clonakilty had in fact entered the Kirbys @ The Whale’s Tail in Clonakilty twice on Christmas Day before returning again on December 28th where he was found in a drunken state, having caused €750 worth of damage to foodstuff, napkins, and a door lock belonging to Billy Kirby, after he lit a fire having locked himself inside.
He pleaded guilty at Bandon District Court to three charges of burglary and to one charge of criminal damage.
Garda Jonathan O’Donovan told Judge Brendan O’Reilly that gardaí viewed CCTV from the premises on December 26th last and two men were observed entering the back of the premises in the early hours of Christmas morning.
‘They hopped a wall and left with cases of alcohol. Gardaí could also see that the accused re-entered the premises at 8.30 pm on the same day and stole more alcohol from the storeroom,’ said Garda O’Donovan.
‘When staff opened the storeroom at 9am on December 28th, they found the accused inside in a drunken state. He was arrested by gardaí at the scene.’
Garda O’Donovan said the total amount of stock taken from the storeroom amount to over €890 which was not recovered.
The court also heard that Mr Roche has 20 previous convictions mainly for theft, public order, and road traffic-related incidents.
A victim impact statement from Billy Kirby was handed into court.
Defence solicitor Plunkett Taaffe said his client, Mr Roche, is originally from Clonmel but living in Clonakilty, as he is in a relationship with a local woman and they have one child.
‘He has a drink problem and needs to address his own rehabilitation rather than treatment centres providing him with a medical cure,’ said Mr Taaffe.
He said he read Mr Kirby’s victim impact statement to his client and it made him aware of the consequences of his actions.
‘He wishes to apologise to Mr Kirby.
He has no funds to compensate him. He is on long-term disability and underlying anxiety which is acerbated by alcohol abuse.’
Mr Taaffe added that ‘this is criminality with a small c and stupidity with a capital S’.
‘He went back there three times and it was inevitable that he would be caught. He couldn’t resist going back and locked himself inside then.’ Mr Taaffe added that his client didn’t break into the premises.
Judge O’Reilly said he would have to take into consideration the fact that Mr Roche entered the premises on Christmas Day.
‘He should have been at home with his child on Christmas Day and not going into a storeroom to steal alcohol,’ said Judge O’Reilly, who added that it is hard enough running a business these days without someone stealing stock.
He said the loss of money may be recouped by Mr Kirby’s insurance company but that could lead to higher premiums for him to pay.
He convicted and sentenced him to four months on each of the four charges with the sentences to run concurrently and backdated the sentence from December 30th.
