A YOUTH soccer coach who stole over €11,000 worth of iPods from Marks and Spencer has been given a suspended sentence.
Reginald Horton (39) took the music players to help pay off a drugs debt. He used them to take €1,000 off the debt.
After hearing the evidence last year, Judge Yvonne Murphy noted he was addressing his drug addiction, and indicated she would impose a non-custodial term if he stayed out of trouble
Yesterday Judge Martin Nolan dealt with the sentence as Judge Murphy is on sick leave.
He said he might not have been as kind to Horton but that he would “follow the road laid down by Judge Murphy”.
He imposed a four-year sentence, suspended for four years.
Horton, of Glenview Park, Tallaght, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the theft of iPods worth €11,504 from Marks and Spencer at Liffey Valley on April 30th, 2010.
Garda Kevin Dingley told prosecuting counsel Pieter Le Vert that Horton and another man pulled up to the store in a van and went in.
They were spotted on CCTV going to the cabinet containing the MP3 players and filling a bag with iPods. They then returned to the van and left.
The registration of the vehicle was picked up by cameras and gardaí traced it to a house.
They found the van parked outside and Horton inside with his partner.
He was arrested and made full-admissions to gardaí.
He said he used his partner’s van for the theft, and that she had no knowledge of it.
He claimed he needed to pay off money he owed for heroin and used the iPods to take €1,000 off his debt. He was shocked when gardaí told him their true value.
Garda Dingley said Horton has 29 previous convictions, mainly for theft and road traffic offences. He agreed he showed remorse for the theft.
Defence counsel Elizabeth Davey said Horton has a partner and three children, and coached an under-seven soccer team.
She said he had earned two coaching certificates from the FAI.
Ms Davey said her client was a long-term heroin addict but was seeking treatment and was trying to turn his life around.
She added that he came from a traumatic background, and that he had lived in England until 10 years ago.