A man who stole alcohol from a city shop by lining a bag with tin foil has been sentenced to seven months in jail.
At Galway District Court last Monday Stanislavas Bereznovskis (26 ) with an address at 162 Bru Na Gruadan, Castletroy, Limerick, pleaded guilty to possession of certain articles and theft at Tesco, Headford Road, on April 16, 2009.
Inspector Ernie White told the court that the defendant entered Tesco and stole four bottles of Hennessy by placing them into a bag lined with tin foil which stopped detection by the security systems. He was arrested and the goods were recovered.
The court also heard that the defendant had 27 previous convictions which included a 10 month sentence for drug dealing and public order offences in June 2009.
Defence solicitor Adrian MacLynn said that the Lithuanian man had taken to drink after losing his job and that all his problems stemmed from this. He added that Bereznovskis was engaging with services while serving his sentence.
Judge Aeneus McCarthy noted that an aggragated factor of the case was the “pre-meditation” by lining the bag with tin foil. He then convicted the defendant and imposed seven months to be served on the termination of the sentence already being served. Leave to appeal was granted.
