A 41-year-old homeless man with 58 previous convictions was given an extra month to serve in jail after breaking the conditions of a temporary release order by stealing a keg from a city pub.
The Galway District Court heard on Monday how Gary Simms with an address at Fairgreen Hostel had succumbed to his addiction to alcohol after a family bereavement, and broke the terms of his temporary release from prison by taking a keg of Guinness from outside Murphy’s Pub in High Street on January 31 last.
Inspector Sean Glynn told the court that the defendant had committed the theft at 7.45am and that the incident had been caught fully on CCTV. He added that Simms failed to appear for a court sitting and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. The court then heard that Simms has a total of 58 previous convictions mostly for public order and that he had been on TR between January 17 to January 31 this year.
Defence solicitor Valerie Corcoran said that her client who pleaded guilty to the offence, had been sober for some time and that he had been on TR when he got distressing news about the tragic death of a young family member. She said that this news “hit him” hard, he began drinking heavily again, and the theft occurred a week after the funeral.
After consideration Judge Mary Fahy said that she would give Simms a chance and imposed a one month sentence, to run consecutively, to the sentence already being served.
