Woman pleads guilty to theft from West Cork Aldi store
The female was identified but the goods, valued at €71.76, were not recovered.
A Cork woman who pleaded guilty to theft from an Aldi supermarket on two separate occasions was addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, her solicitor told a recent sitting of Clonakilty District Court.
Court presenter Sergeant Tom Mulcahy said 34-year-old Jenna Pierce of The Perrin Inn, Glengarriff, Co. Cork, was charged with two counts of theft contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001.
The court heard that on September 13, 2025, at 6pm a male and a female entered the Aldi supermarket in Dunmanway, Co. Cork, where they placed items of clothing and cosmetics into two bags and left the store without paying for them. The female was identified as Pierce and the goods valued at €71.76 were not recovered.
On September 27 Pierce and another individual returned to Aldi in Dunmanway and filled two rucksacks with groceries valued at €141.28. They went to the till and paid a small amount for some other items but did not pay for the goods in the rucksacks. The goods were not recovered.
Defence solicitor Conrad Murphy said Pierce had brought €80 in compensation to court. He said his client had addiction issues including heroin and crack cocaine but had spent six months in residential treatment.
The court was told that Pierce was the mother of two children who were in care. Mr Murphy said Pierce’s significant offending was in the period up to 2019. He said Pierce had “a lot of tragedy in her life” and asked the court to consider requesting a probation report before deciding on penalty.
The court was told Pierce had 77 previous convictions including 31 for theft and two for burglary. Judge Joanne Carroll said the significant offending appears to have continued to 2025.
She said the thefts were premeditated and that “actions spoke louder than words”. The judge noted that Pierce had not fully compensated the injured party.
She agreed to ask for a probation report on Pierce and adjourned the matter to March 3, 2026, by which time she said Pierce should bring the full amount of compensation to court.
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