A FATHER of one who robbed the shop across the road from his own home in “one of the silliest” crimes captured on CCTV footage has been sentenced to four years in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Desmond O’Neill (29), Whitestown Green, Blanchardstown, was armed with a lump hammer when he rolled across the shop counter and demanded money from the shopkeeper, a woman he had known all his life.
Garda Eoin Clerkin accepted in cross-examination from Martina Baxter, defending, that the robbery “was not the cleverest” and had been “one of the silliest to watch on CCTV”.
Judge Frank O’Donnell suspended the last year of the sentence after he commented: “To say this was a stupid robbery is putting it mildly.”
He noted that O’Neill’s 26 previous convictions had mostly been committed while he was on bail for other offences and described his lifestyle as “chaotic”.
O’Neill pleaded guilty to the robbery of Whitestown Stores on Whitestown Avenue on November 20th, 2004.
Garda Clerkin told Damien Colgan, prosecuting, that O’Neill came into the shop as it was closing for the evening. He was wearing a cap and had a scarf over his face, but the shopkeeper immediately recognised her neighbour.
Garda Clerkin said the shopkeeper shouted, “Don’t be foolish, Dessie,” but O’Neill took €900 in cash and €1,200 in cheques.
Garda Clerkin said O’Neill, who lives with his mother, had one previous conviction before the offence, but had clocked up 25 convictions since committing this crime four years ago.
He was arrested in April 2005 but denied the crime and pleaded not guilty until June 2008.