The High Court quashed one committal warrant against Napoleon Silaghi but refused the remaining relief sought by him and Lucian Marina in judicial review proceedings concerning sentences imposed for offences arising from a 2013 theft at Bailieboro Foundry, Co Cavan.
In a judgment delivered on 27 January 2017, Mr Justice White said the State had conceded that the warrant for Silaghi’s conviction under section 12(1)(b) and (3) of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 was defective on its face. Silaghi was entitled to an order of certiorari in respect of that warrant.
The applicants had pleaded guilty in Virginia District Court in January 2014 to entering a building as trespassers intending to commit theft and to stealing property. They each received six months’ imprisonment on each charge, to run concurrently. Their appeals against the severity of sentence were dismissed by Judge O’Hagan in Cavan Circuit Court in June 2015, who affirmed the convictions and sentences.
In the judicial review, the applicants argued that the Circuit Court judge should have considered community service as an alternative to imprisonment and should have stated that consideration in his reasons or on the committal warrants. Their counsel had told the Circuit Court that both men were willing to undertake community service or comply with conditions of a suspended sentence.
Justice White said there was no requirement for the sentencing judge to expressly state that he had considered community service. The judge’s remarks showed that he regarded the offences seriously and considered the District Court sentences lenient. Given that community service and suspended sentences had been raised, the court said it could be implied that the judge had considered and rejected those options.
The judgment distinguished an earlier case in which a judge had expressly refused to consider a community service order. Here, Justice White said, the committal warrants clearly identified the offences and penalties, and did not need to recite consideration of community service.
The court therefore refused the applicants’ other requested reliefs, while granting certiorari for the defective warrant relating to Silaghi. A separate challenge concerning sentencing disparity was no longer pursued.