A judge branded a Co Clare woman a “brazen hussy” after hearing that she stole 38 cosmetic items from a Boots outlet last year.
Judge Patrick Durcan jailed Tania McCarthy (32), a mother-of-four, for a year at Ennis District Court after stating that she had carried out “a hoover job” on the Ennis chemist on November 1st in taking items worth a combined €520.
He sentenced McCarthy, of Oak Park, Watery Road, Ennis, to six months for the Boots theft; imposed a consecutive four month sentence for a €25 theft of groceries from a Centra store three days later and a two month prison term for a taking €9 of goods from the same Centra on November 5th.
“The situation can’t continue where the retail and commercial sector of this town is consistently and persistently torpedoed by brazen hussies like Ms McCarthy who think they can have the right to go around to shops and help themselves at will,” he said of the accused, who has 11 previous convictions for theft.
In a previous case, McCarthy used her then five-year old son to help her steal two baskets of clothes from Penneys in June 2015 in a crime described as “absolutely and utterly reprehensible” by a circuit court judge.
Judge Durcan described McCarthy’s thieving as “breathtakingly brazen, breathtakingly bold and breathtakingly criminal”.
McCarthy pleaded guilty to the offences and her solicitor Tara Godfrey requested an adjournment to allow her client to reimburse the businesses affected. She said McCarthy has suffered in her life with bereavements, difficulties in the health of one child, marriage disharmony and homelessness.
Ms Godfrey said her client has learned her lesson.
