The Court of Appeal dismissed Thomas Healy’s appeal against a five-year prison sentence, with the final 12 months suspended, for burglary. The court said the sentencing judge had made no error in principle and had imposed a sentence within his discretion.
Healy pleaded guilty on the date of trial. He had been sentenced on 15 February 2018 after the judge set a headline sentence of seven years and considered mitigating factors. The appeal judgment was delivered on 24 June 2019.
The court said Healy and another man entered an apartment on 21 July 2017 while its resident was away. Seventy cents was taken. Gardaí identified Healy from contemporaneous webcam footage supplied by the injured party. The court said the evidence was overwhelming and there was no realistic prospect of acquittal, factors relevant to the weight given to the plea.
Healy argued that the sentencing judge gave insufficient weight to the absence of force, violence or damage, the low value of the property, its recovery, his plea, rehabilitation prospects and other personal circumstances. He also argued that the sentence was oppressive and that the judge had relied too heavily on deterrence.
The appeal court rejected those arguments. It identified as aggravating factors that the premises was a dwelling, two people were involved, and socks belonging to the resident were used as gloves to minimise detection. It also noted Healy’s 65 previous convictions, including two burglary convictions on indictment, and that the offence was committed while he was on bail for a similar offence.
The court said the plea was not early and that several claimed mitigating circumstances were unsupported by evidence. It found no basis to conclude that the sentencing judge had given undue weight to general or specific deterrence. The appeal was dismissed; the five-year sentence and suspended final year therefore remained in place.