Tallaght teen pleads guilty to stealing bicycle and aftershave

By Brendan Grehan

A TEENAGER (19) who was caught with a stolen bicycle and stolen aftershave and cider was sentenced to seven months detention by Tallaght Court.

Luke Byrne, aged 19, with an address at Rossfield Park, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to stealing a bottle of Lacoste aftershave worth €82.50 from Debenhams, The Square, Tallaght, on June 14, 2016.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing stolen property, a purple ladies bicycle, at Cheeverstown Road in Tallaght on January 30, 2016.

He also pleaded guilty to stealing a box of Bulmers cider worth €19.99 from Lidl, Whitestown Way in Tallaght on June 8, 2015 and to failing to appear at Tallaght Court on July 26, 2016.

Byrne was before Judge Patricia Mc-Namara for sentencing.

The court had heard that at 3.20pm on January 30, 2016, gardaí responded to a call that two males had been seen taking a purple women’s bicycle from a front garden in Tallaght.

The men had been seen walking along the Luas tracks. Arriving at the scene, the gardaí saw Byrne and another man with the bicycle.

Sergeant Michael Ahern told Judge McNamara that Byrne had 13 previous convictions.

At Dublin Circuit Court on December 9, 2016, he had been sentenced to three years detention with one year suspended for assault causing harm.

At Cloverhill on July 23, 2015, he had been sentenced to four months for refusing to give his name and address and to two months for breaching the peace.

Byrne’s solicitor, Padraig O’Donovan, said his client is currently serving his sentence. He asked Judge McNamara to treat the case with some leniency. He said Byrne was one of a family of seven children. 

He said Byrne’s father had left the family home and his mother had brought up the children alone.

Mr O’Donovan said his client had only got into trouble over the last two years when he started having difficulties with drugs.

Judge McNamara sentenced Byrne to seven months detention for possessing the stolen bicycle, consecutive on the termination of the two-year sentence that he is currently serving.

She also sentenced him to seven months each for the theft of the cider and the aftershave and to four months for failing to appear in court.