A Westport native distruct court judge has slammed cash-for-gold stores and said he would close them down if he could.
At Mullingar District Court, Judge Seamus Hughes said such shops should be regulated, and equated them to scrap merchants who don’t question where customers got stolen metal and sometimes public ornaments and monuments to sell.
He was speaking as he jailed a heroin addict who stole jewellery from a house she broke into and slept in for two nights while the owner was away.
Sharon Clarke (29 ), Market Square, Longford Town, was caught by Garda Lindsay Quinlan at the cash for gold store on Dominick Street, Mullingar on March 5 as she tried to sell two rings worth €650.
One was gold and encrusted with diamonds while she was the other had a black stone, and they were among €3,750 worth of goods taken from the house, including an engagement ring which wasn’t recovered.
She was offered €90 for the rings while under the influence of heroin in the shop.
“What does that say for the cash for gold shop on Dominick Street, Mullingar?” Judge Hughes asked, noting that a young woman “who doesn’t have the trappings of affluence” had been able to offer valuable gold items to a salesperson who was happy to negotiate a trade with her, despite her obvious state.
He said the conduct of the salesperson was an absolute disgrace and had facilitated the commission of crime.
The salesperson was no doubt aware of Clarke’s addiction but had still used the opportunity of “lining his own pockets”, he said.
“It’s an abomination, an absolute disgrace,” he said, pointing out that the salesperson and owner did not represent other businesses in the county.
He was also laid the blame for the two, consecutive nine month sentences he imposed on Clarke for theft, at the door of the Governor of the Dochas Centre at Mountjoy or the Director of the Prison Service, whichever of the two was responsible for releasing Clarke four months into a 12 month sentence for thefts.
She could not have committed the offences if she was still in prison, he said.
He said she should not have been let out, and advised a group of schoolchildren visiting the court that regardless of what sentence he imposed on Ms Clarke for the new offences, it might not stand.
“By the time she gets up the prison, her sentence will be changed by someone who doesn’t operate in a public forum as I operate in a public forum.”
If given nine months, she could be out in two or three weeks, he said, blaming a system which he said must cause frustration to the public, gardaí, and judges.
He said a lack of prison spaces is to blame and “the sooner that changes, the sooner society will be protected”.
