Longford woman jailed for two months for theft

Helen Nevin (37) 4 Victory Court, Earl Street, Longford was given the jail term after she pleaded guilty to theft and two separate public order incidents in Longford town earlier this year.

Ms Nevin was brought before last week’s sitting of Longford District Court from Mountjoy Prison’s Dochas Centre after it emerged the Longford woman had a two year suspended sentence activated at a recent sitting of Longford Circuit Criminal Court.

The shoplifting offence, the court was told, took place at The Kiosk, 57 Dublin Street, Longford.

Sgt Mark Mahon said on the day of the incident Ms Nevin entered the retail premises and stole two packets of cigarettes before leaving moments later without paying.

Both items were not recovered.

Judge Bernadette Owens was also given evidence of two almost identical public order incidents on March 27 and May 3 this year respectively.

Both incidents took place on Earl Street in Longford town when Ms Nevin was described as being “highly intoxicated”.

Sgt Mahon said on each occasion Ms Nevin was arrested after she had been spotted “falling out in front of traffic.”

In continuing the State’s case, Sgt Mahon said Ms Nevin had 53 previous convictions to her name.

The last of those, the court heard, arrived on February 28 last for disorderly conduct and attracted a €200 fine.

Sgt Mahon said the overwhelming majority of previous offences committed by Ms Nevin related to theft, a number which he put at just shy of the 30 mark.

It was revealed Ms Nevin was currently serving a two year suspended sentence which had been activated at Longford Circuit Criminal Court following a sentence which had been suspended for seven years in June 2021.

That related to a violent disorder charge which occurred on December 16, 2019.

In mitigation, defence solicitor John Quinn said his client’s problems all stemmed from the one overriding catalyst - alcoholism.

“That’s where all these offences come from, an addiction to alcohol and she wants to wean herself off it totally,” he said.

“She is a young lady who developed a problem over a while and it’s now got to a serious condition that requires treatment.

“She is hoping that with the sentence that she can come clean and get back to a normal life.”

Mr Quinn said while he was not in the business of making little of the offences committed by Ms Nevin, they were nonetheless “repetitive” in nature.

In delivering sentence, Judge Owens said it was up to Ms Nevin to make the best possible use of her time in custody in order to address her addiction issues.

She consequently sentenced her to two months in prison for the shoplifting incident, a term she ordered to run concurrently to the Circuit Court sentence she is presently serving.

Both public order matters were taken into consideration.