Manuela Lacatus wins High Court challenge to theft sentence

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Manuela Lacatus had her eight-month prison sentence for grocery theft quashed by the High Court, in a judgment reported on 12 June 2023. The theft was from a Lidl store in Sallins, Co Kildare.

Justice Niamh Hyland found the Circuit Court had applied a fixed approach to sentencing people with previous theft convictions, without assessing Lacatus’s case individually. She said that approach was impermissible.

The judge did not rely on remarks by the Circuit Court judge about repeat shoplifters when quashing the sentence. She also rejected Lacatus’s argument that her constitutional right to dignity had been breached.

The report said the case would return to the High Court later that month.