Burglar’s actions do not make things ‘easy for other immigrants’, judge says

A man who committed a series of criminal offences shortly after arriving in Ireland in 2016 was doing nothing to help the cause of other immigrants coming into the State, a judge has said.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Constantin Bodgan Chirila (30), of Emmet Street, Dublin had several convictions for crimes including burglary, theft and possession of stolen property which were carried out shortly after he arrived in Ireland from Romania.

“It does not make it easy for other immigrants,” said Judge Pauline Codd as she sentenced him to 3½ years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the burglary of an apartment at Clonmore Villas, Ballybough on August 7th, 2016.

Suspending the final nine months of the sentence, the judge backdated it to November 23rd, 2017, when he was first placed in custody over another offence.

Judge Codd said she was “not impressed” that Bogdan Chirila had arrived in the country in July 2016 and was committing crimes the following month.

Det Garda Conor Mackey, of Mountjoy Garda station, gave evidence that the owner of the apartment, Alan Ling, had seen a shadow in his hallway after returning home from a local shop. The court heard that Bogdan Chirila immediately ran away after Mr Ling shouted at him to get out of his home.

Det Garda Mackey said Bogdan Chirila had admitted breaking the lock of the front door and stealing €80 in cash. However, he denied taking a laptop computer worth €400 which Mr Ling also reported missing.

The witness said Bogdan Chirila had said he was shown the flat to break into by another person.

Confessed

After being arrested, Det Garda Mackey said Bogdan Chirila had confessed to the crime but said he had been motivated by hunger.

The court heard that he had seven previous convictions, most of which occurred between August and October 2016. He has been in custody since November 2017 when he was given a three year sentence for burglary.

Aoife O’Leary BL, defending, said the Ballybough burglary had shown “some degree of opportunism” but “no element of aggression”.

Ms O’Leary said he had chosen to break into the apartment during daytime because he believed it would be unoccupied and had fled the property as soon as he was confronted. She said he had honoured a commitment not to re-offend during a nine-month period when released from custody during 2017.

The court heard that he had no friends or family in Ireland, was unemployed and had no social welfare benefits.

Judge Codd acknowledged that Bogdan Chirila had positive reports from the prison authorities and he was making efforts to educate himself in jail

Addressing the court, Bogdan Chirila started crying as he apologised to his victim and said he had got into “bad associations”.