The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against a four-year sentence imposed on a woman who pleaded guilty to burglary in Cork. The sentence includes a final year suspended on terms.
The appellant was sentenced by Cork Circuit Court on 10 May 2019. She had pleaded guilty on 8 February 2019 to burglary under section 12(1)(a) and (3) of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001. The Court of Appeal delivered its judgment on 2 December 2019.
The offence involved a handbag taken from a restaurant staff room on Princes Street in Cork on 22 December 2017. The bag contained a phone, identity cards, bank cards, cash and jewellery. CCTV led Gardaí to identify the appellant leaving with the items. A search of her address did not recover them, and the property remained missing.
The sentencing court heard that the appellant had 178 previous convictions, including 78 theft offences, eight burglary offences and one offence of trespass with intent to commit an offence. She had previously received a four-year sentence, with the final two years suspended, for burglary in 2015. The court also heard that she had paid €500 in compensation and that she had made efforts towards rehabilitation in custody.
The appellant argued that the sentencing judge had not followed the recommended two-stage process, making the sentence insufficiently transparent and disproportionate. She also said the judge gave too little weight to mitigation, including remorse, compensation and rehabilitation. The Director of Public Prosecutions accepted that the recommended process had not been followed, but argued that this did not itself amount to an error in principle.
The Court of Appeal said sentencing is about substance over form, and that failure to follow a particular process does not by itself establish an error in principle. It found the sentencing remarks showed an initial four-year sentence reduced by one year for mitigation. After counsel asked the judge to consider suspending part of it, the judge restructured the sentence to suspend the final year on terms, to encourage rehabilitation.
The appeal court said the judge had allowed a 25% reduction for the guilty plea, the appellant’s addiction history and the €500 offered to the victim. It found no error in principle and dismissed the appeal. The four-year sentence, including the suspended final year on terms, therefore remained in place.