A Cork man with a record number of burglary convictions for the area was jailed for 19 months for his latest crimes.

36-year-old William McCarthy of no fixed address broke into the Nano Nagle Place premises pleaded and stole over €2,000 worth of electrical items when he ransacked officers there.

Judge Olann Kelleher sentenced him to 11 months in prison for that burglary and a consecutive term of eight months for a theft.

Sergeant Pat Lyons said McCarthy had 107 previous convictions for burglary and 58 counts of theft.

Judge Kelleher said, “107 for burglary which I would say is a record for our area.” Sergeant Lyons said the facilities manager at the Nano Nagle Place, Douglas Street, noticed damage to a door in the building on his arrival to work on March 13. 

On checking CCTV at the location he verified that an intruder gained entry to the premises between 2.50 and 4.50a.m. Staff members then alerted gardaí to a number of offices having been ransacked.

€2,000 worth of items of electrical equipment were missing.

The second offence occurred two months later on May 14 when he stole runners valued €90 in a package at the reception of Deans Hall apartments, Crosses Green, Cork.

Defence solicitor, Joseph Cuddigan, said McCarthy was trying to get into a residential treatment centre when he was arrested for these offences.

“He has quite a lot of tragedy in his life including the loss of a child. He struggles with addiction. Matters were progressing in a satisfactory manner and he was on the cusp of getting into treatment when he was arrested,” Mr Cuddigan said.

Mr Cuddigan said the series of tragedies and challenges in the defendant’s life caused him to resort to his offending behaviour.