Laois man jailed for stealing €4.50 chicken roll and sausage roll valued at €1.90

A Portlaoise man has been jailed for several offences including the theft of a chicken fillet roll and a sausage roll from a local garage shop.

Darren McInerney, 1 New Road, Portlaoise appeared before the local district court last week charged with making gain (€20) by deception at Casey’s Garage, Toomevara, Co Tipperary on February 21st, the theft of a sausage roll valued at €1.90 from Downey’s Garage, Dublin Road, Portlaoise on January 27th and with the theft of a chicken fillet roll valued at €4.50 from the same garage on March 5th.

As reported by the Laois Nationalist, Judge Andrew Cody noted that over the past few years, the defendant had amassed 12 convictions for the same type of deception – going into shops and claiming he had given in a €20 note when he had not – and described him as “appearing to be an expert at this”.

The 37-year-old pleaded guilty to the offences.

When Judge Cody was told the defendant had 137 previous convictions, McInerney said to the judge: “Don’t go too hard on me”.

Defending solicitor Philip Meagher said that his client “has a path worn to the probation officer’s door looking to see if she can get him some treatment for his underlying problems”.

“It’s reasonable to say that if he had got treatment earlier on, he would not be here in court today,” he added.

Judge Cody went on to convict the defendant of the theft of the chicken fillet roll and imposed a one-month sentence backdated to April 12th. The judge also imposed a three-month sentence for deception, again backdated to April 14th, with both sentences to run concurrently.