A heroin addict who threatened a petrol station assistant with a screwdriver during an attempted robbery was jailed for years. William O'Grady (20), of Avonbeg Road, Tallaght, admitted in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempted robbery of the Esso service station at Tallaght on August 23rd, 1995.
As he threatened the assistant, the manager arrived. O'Grady dropped the screw driver and grabbed a tube of Pringles crisps to defend him self against the manager, who had ordered the electronic locks on the premises to be activated before overpowering O'Grady.
Judge Michael Moriarty said that like most heroin addicts, O'Grady had progressed from larceny type offences to confrontational crime.
However, he accepted this offence was at the lower end of the scale.
He backdated the sentence to last October when O'Grady was jailed for 22 months for other offences, and suspended the final six months.
