A man was convicted of theft yesterday after he found nearly £3,000 in cash in a public park.
John O'Mara (19), Kirkpatrick Drive, Clonsilla, Dublin, denied a charge of theft by finding of £2,890 at Coolmine Woods, Blanchardstown, on January 21st last.
O'Mara found the cash in a bush as he was waiting at a bus stop near the park. He claimed £70 of it was his own.
Sgt Eunan Malone, Blanchardstown, said he stopped O'Mara walking along Castleknock Road after midnight following reports of two men acting suspiciously in the area. He asked them if they would mind emptying their pockets and as O'Mara did so, he tried to conceal something in his left trouser pocket.
When the cash was found, O'Mara was taken to Blanchardstown Garda station. In a later interview with gardai he admitted finding the money in the bush about four hours before he was stopped. He said in the meantime, he had met a friend and had gone to a cinema in Blanchardstown.
His lawyer argued that the State had failed to show there was the "mental element" of intending to deprive the owner of the money.
Judge Sean MacBride said O'Mara had the opportunity to go to the gardai with the money, as he had passed near Blanchardstown station on his way to the cinema.
After hearing he had no previous convictions and was a second-year apprentice electrician, Judge MacBride said he had thought about jailing him for six months. But as the chances were that O'Mara could come out of prison worse than when he went in, he would not impose a custodial sentence. He ordered that he do 240 hours' community service and remanded him for three months for a probation report.
Judge MacBride also ordered that the cash remain in the custody of the gardai for "a year and a day" to give the rightful owner a chance to claim it, after which time an order could be made forfeiting it to the State.