A drug addict who spent stolen charity money on drugs and a taxi from Mayo to Galway has received a partially suspended nine year sentence for this theft and two robberies.
Terence Maughan (35 ) of Cabra Park, Phibsboro, Dublin, had been living in Mayo when he walked into a St Vincent de Paul shop/office and took €2,510 which had been intended for a bank lodgement.
Mr Patrick Reynolds BL, defending, had submitted to Judge Tony Hunt at the sentence hearing that his client had gone into the charity shop for food and travel money to Galway for a doctor’s visit when he took the opportunity to steal the cash.
Maughan pleaded guilty at Castlebar Circuit Court to stealing the charity money from the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Pavillion Road, Castlebar, on July 10, 2009.
He then pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbing a wallet and mobile phone at Setanta Place, Dublin, on March 6, 2010 and to robbing an ‘iTouch’ at O’Connell Street on May 29, 2010.
Judge Hunt noted that Maughan had promised he would repay the St Vincent de Paul in weekly instalments but had not done so to date.
He noted that Maughan had played a lesser role in the Setanta Place robbery than his co-accused but was released on bail for this offence when he committed the second robbery with another man.
The judge accepted that Maughan is now off drugs and wishes to lead a crime free life.
He gave Maughan a two year sentence for stealing the charity money to run concurrent to a four year sentence for his first robbery.
He said Maughan’s “orgy of offending” would justify a lengthy custodial sentence but added that he would give the father-of-two a chance and suspended a five year consecutive sentence for the second robbery in full for 10 years.
Judge Hunt backdated the sentences to June last year when Maughan entered custody on the matters.
