The Court of Appeal has dismissed Terence McDonagh’s appeal against a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for theft, finding no error of principle in the sentencing judge’s decision.
McDonagh pleaded guilty at Trim Circuit Criminal Court on 11 February 2015 to one count of theft. He was sentenced on 16 February 2016 to two years and six months’ imprisonment. The appeal was heard by a three-judge Court of Appeal, which delivered its judgment on 3 November 2016.
The theft took place on 16 August 2013 at Annes Florist on Ludlow Street in Navan. The judgment says the shop’s proprietor, Francis Gibney, found the till open and two men fleeing. Gibney chased them and confronted them on Market Square, where a scuffle followed. He recovered €150, described as one third of the €450 taken from the till. Both men then fled on foot. McDonagh was arrested on 4 September 2013 and made full admissions, the judgment says.
The appeal argued that the sentencing judge had given too little weight to mitigating factors, too much weight to aggravating factors, and imposed an excessive sentence. The sentencing judge had treated the offence as serious, noting its opportunistic nature and McDonagh’s approximately 100 previous convictions, including five for burglary and five for theft. The judge also considered his guilty plea, admissions, remorse and positive steps towards rehabilitation as mitigating factors.
The Court of Appeal said the large number of previous convictions, particularly those relevant to theft, was an exceptional and substantial factor. Although the offending might have fallen short of the middle range in gravity, that record left the sentencing judge with little option but to impose a significant custodial term.
The appeal court also noted that McDonagh was already serving a prison sentence for an unrelated matter, and that the sentence in this case extended his incarceration by a relatively short period. It concluded that the two-and-a-half-year sentence was within the range available to the sentencing judge and dismissed the appeal. The judgment does not alter the sentence.