2024-04-25 ยท Dublin
Robber with 92 priors who travelled wrong way down motorway has jail term more than trebled
The Court of Appeal has re-sentenced Alan Melia, finding his original prison term unduly lenient. Melia, of Ballyfermot, Dublin, had previously pleaded guilty to robbery at the Applegreen filling station in Northern Ireland, along with endangerment, dangerous driving, and criminal damage on the M1 in Louth, all occurring on August 23, 2020. In January 2023, Judge Patrick Quinn at Dundalk Courthouse set a headline sentence of six years, which was reduced to four years with two years suspended. Acting for the State, Simon Matthews BL appealed this decision, arguing the sentence was significantly too low given Melia's 92 previous convictions and the severity of the offences, including reversing into a garda vehicle and driving the wrong way down the motorway. Defence counsel Keith Spencer BL highlighted mitigation factors, including an early guilty plea and a difficult upbringing. Mr Justice Birmingham agreed the original sentence was unduly lenient to a significant extent. He determined that the headline sentence could not be less than ten years but reduced it to seven and a half years, taking into account Melia's guilty plea and his cooperation in consenting to have the robbery dealt with in this jurisdiction. The final year of the sentence was suspended for 12 months.