A man who had been involved in a “sophisticated” burglary operation and stopped in a car wanted in connection with incidents in numerous counties, was jailed for a total of 14 months at Galway District Court last week.
The court heard that Polish national Michael Blaszczak, who had been found in possession of property including nearly €4,000 worth belonging to the chaplain of GMIT, was so successful in his criminal activities that he had to rent two rooms in Galway city to store his bounty.
Twenty-five-year-old Blaszczak of 8 Glenburren Park, Tuam Road, Galway, appeared before Judge Mary Fahy last Wednesday and pleaded guilty to the charge of handling stolen property at 47 Glen Rua, Renmore, on October 15, 2008. This property included: a Panasonic stereo, Playstation, Italian and old Irish money, a video camera, an Olympus camera, a wrist watch, a laptop, a portable DVD player, and digital picture frame. Gardai also found a silver chalice valued at €2,000 and one silver butler dish, a silver gravy dish, silver tray, and four wine goblets with a total value of €1,000.
There were also further charges for handling stolen property, namely two Nokia mobiles, and a name tag of a Portland suitcase at Lough Atalia on the same date as well as possession of a Prosnip, adjustable spanner, and an assortment of gloves with the intent to commit burglary, and possession of cannabis weed. A charge for possessing a brown handled kitchen knife was withdrawn.
Inspector Pat McHugh told the court that gardai were on duty in Renmore when they spotted a car which they recognised as being “wanted in connection with a number of incidents in other counties”. When the car, which had three people in it including the defendant, was searched items used in burglaries were found. When the defendant was questioned it was discovered that as well as living at 8 Glenburren Park he had also rented out two rooms at 47 Glen Rua where “33 items of stolen property” were found during a search.
The inspector outlined some of the burglaries to Judge Fahy saying that the most substantial amount of property, valued at approximately €4,000, had been taken from the chaplain at GMIT, Fr Adrian McGrath. He added that €450 worth of items have not yet been recovered.
Gardai had interviewed other occupants of 47 Glen Rua which had been rented by a Polish woman. Inspector McHugh stressed that this woman “did not know what was going on” and had only rented the rooms out to the defendant two weeks before the search. The inspector said that the defendant had been using these rooms as a “store”. When interviewed by gardai Blaszczak denied taking part in all the burglaries but did accept buying some of the property. The court heard how the defendant has two previous convictions but neither of these was theft related.
Defence solicitor Adrian MacLynn said that Blaszczak had been employed continuously since arriving in Ireland almost five years ago but “fell in to bad times” recently. He said that Blaszczak had obtained the items through a friend and had paid money for them. He then asked Judge Fahy to be lenient as this was the defendant’s first serious offence.
“This is a sophisticated operation,” said Judge Fahy who added that the defendant was “so successful in his activities” that he needed to rent rooms to store the property. She then jailed Blaszczak for a total of 14 months. For possession of cannabis he was also fined €150. Leave to appeal was granted.
