GARDAÍ on duty in Mahon saw two women getting out of a taxi and stashing stolen handbags into a hedge.
Inspector John Deasy said at Cork District Court that the crime was detected by gardaí in Mahon on August 21, 2014.
The two women concealed the handbags in a hedge as soon as they got out of the car.
Gardaí retrieved the bags and discovered they had been stolen from Monsoon in Mahon Point. The bags were stuffed with goods stolen from Eason’s in Mahon Point.
The stolen property from Monsoon was worth a total of €141 and the goods from Eason’s were worth €495.
Tara Fitzgerald of 62 Inniscarra Road, Fair Hill, pleaded guilty to handling the stolen property. She also admitted shoplifting at Hickey’s pharmacy on March 27, 2015 in Ballincollig where she stole €139 worth of Yankee candles.
Insp Deasy said that on that occasion she fled from security staff but was caught and again the property was recovered.
Fitzgerald had 40 previous convictions including 15 for theft and three for burglary.
Diarmuid Kelleher, solicitor, emphasised the fact that all the stolen property was recovered and that the offences dated back to 2014 and early 2015.
“She was going through a period of difficulties at the time where she was not receiving any social welfare due to issues relating to her address, but that has been resolved since,” he said.
Fitzgerald failed to appear in court and was remanded in custody to Limerick prison for a few days pending sentence.
“What was that like?” Mr Kelleher asked Fitzgerald in Cork District Court and she replied: “It wasn’t nice.”
The 27-year-old was keen to avoid a return to jail.
Judge Olann Kelleher said she could do 180 hours of community service instead of four months in prison for the shoplifting and he imposed a five-month suspended jail term on her for handling stolen property.
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