Five-month suspended sentence for burglar who tried to steal from 89-year-old

By Brendan Grehan

A BURGLAR (20) who took advantage of an 89-year-old Rathfarnham woman with dementia by trying to steal from her has received a five-month suspended sentence.

The woman let Carmen Nicolae in to use the toilet but Nicolae was caught coming down the stairs with a number of items.

Nicolae, with an address at Rosevale Court, Blakestown Road, Blanchardstown, pleaded guilty to burglary at an address at Lower Dodder Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, on April 16, 2016.

Garda Ciaran O’Neill told Judge John Cheatle in Dublin District Court that Nicolae called to the home of the victim at 3.30pm on the above date.

Nicolae asked if she could use the toilet and the woman allowed her upstairs.

Garda O’Neill said the victim’s daughter came into the house and met Nicolae coming down the stairs with “a number of items belonging to the injured party”,

Nicolae let the items drop and ran out of the front door, but was later identified on CCTV footage.

She made full admissions when arrested and charged.

Her counsel Conor Burke Bl said there was no evidence of any sort of “force or malice”.

The property was dropped when she was confronted by the victim’s daughter.

It seemed “more opportunistic than anything else”, Mr Burke said.

The court heard that Nicolae was already in prison for another charge – attempted theft – having gone inside days after giving birth to her second child.

Judge Cheatle said he disputed that there was an absence of malice.

He said: “I think it was a particularly egregious crime to take advantage of a lady aged 89 with dementia, and the accused knew full well what she did.”

He sentenced Nicolae to five months imprisonment, suspended for a year.