Lee Gannon gets suspended sentence for phone credit theft

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Lee Gannon received a one-year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for stealing phone credit from Tesco. The proceedings were reported on 14 February 2022.

Gannon stole €5,989 in 17 transactions in July and August 2018 at Tesco on Upper Rathmines Road, Rathmines, Dublin. The report said the transactions were traced to his store code and CCTV showed him ringing up phone credit before pocketing it.

He pleaded guilty to three sample counts of stealing from the supermarket on dates between 24 July and 22 August 2018. When arrested, Gannon said his former partner, the mother of his children, had run up a drug debt and he had been placed under pressure to pay it off.

Garda Michael Cunningham said he believed that account and that members of Gannon’s family were being used as “pawns” to secure repayment of the debt. Defence counsel Luigi Rea said Gannon had €4,500 in court for Tesco and was willing to repay the balance.

Judge Martin Nolan noted that Gannon had no previous convictions and said he believed he was unlikely to reoffend. He suspended the one-year sentence on conditions including payment of €4,500 to Tesco and the remainder owed within 11 months.