The Court of Appeal has increased the sentence imposed on Paul Clarke for robbing a Lidl store at gunpoint, ruling that the original sentence was unduly lenient because it ran from the date it was imposed while Clarke was already serving another prison term.
The court set aside the sentences imposed by the Circuit Criminal Court and resentenced Clarke. It nominated a headline sentence of nine and a half years, reduced it by two years for mitigating circumstances and suspended the final five months for four years. The resulting effective sentence is seven years, running from 20 October 2023.
Clarke had pleaded guilty to robbery and carrying a firearm with criminal intent. A charge of reckless discharge of a firearm was taken into consideration. The Circuit Court imposed six years for robbery and five years for the firearm offence, to run concurrently from 20 October 2023.
The offences arose from a robbery at a Lidl on Malahide Road in Dublin 17 on 13 November 2019. Evidence at the sentencing hearing was that Clarke entered the store, fired a handgun into the ceiling and demanded that tills be opened. He took about €1,000 in cash and coins. A store manager told gardaí that Clarke threatened him with the gun. The incident lasted about two minutes, and a mother and child were among those who tried to leave the store.
The Court of Appeal said the sentencing judge had identified an eight-year headline sentence for robbery but had not explained why the prison term would run from the sentencing date. That start date effectively reduced the period of custody by about 19 months, a significant reduction that the appeal court said was inconsistent with the judge’s own assessment. The court said it could not tell whether the judge had considered the totality principle, as no such concern had been expressed.
In resentencing, the court cited the seriousness of firing a real firearm in a supermarket, the effect on members of the public, the planned nature of the offence and Clarke’s previous convictions. It noted that he had previously been convicted of a robbery in a Dublin post office in which a shotgun was fired. The court said this was the second retail robbery in which he had discharged a firearm.
The court also considered mitigation, including Clarke’s progress addressing drug dependence and completion of prison courses. It said the 19 months he would otherwise have served on an earlier sentence had been taken into account in setting the new headline sentence. The ruling does not alter the conviction; it replaces the original sentences following the Director of Public Prosecutions’ sentence review application.