A man, with three different aliases, was jailed for seven months this week for using a tin-foil lined bag to steal designer sun glasses from a city centre pharmacy.
Pranas Jucinskis (41 ) with an address at 1 Toureen Crescent, Passage West, Cork, was brought before Galway District Court last Monday where he pleaded guilty to theft and possession of certain articles at Boots, Shop Street, on June 30, 2009.
The court heard that gardai had received a call to go to Boots as a shoplifter had been detained by security. The defendant had been trying to steal five pairs of designer sunglasses. The defendant had also been found in possession of a bag lined with tin foil.
Defence solicitor Olivia Traynor said that her client, who has a bench warrant in existence, had accepted responsibility when he was arrested at Boots. She also confirmed that her client had three aliases.
“There had been a question over why he had so many,” said Judge Mary Fahy referring to a previous court sitting.
Ms Traynor said that the defendant, a Lithuanian national, had been in the country for eight to nine months. She said that Jucinskis wished to apologise to the court.
According to Garda evidence the defendant had two forms of identification which have the same name and appear to be legitimate. Inspector Sean Glynn said that enquiries were made and that gardai were now quite sure of his identity. However, he did request that the State be allowed to hold onto the defendant’s identification to further clarify details.
Judge Fahy then pointed out that there have been many cases of people using bags lined with tin foil in order to avoid detection of the security tags. However, she said that many are not successful as shops have CCTV and people are under surveillance when they enter. She then imposed a total of seven months jail.
