A former doorman at Brown Thomas in Dublin who stole gift vouchers worth €15,500 from the store has been sentenced to do 240 hours of community service by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Gerard Kelly (29), who worked at the Grafton Street store for 10 years, stole three lots of gift vouchers from the information desk between July and November 2002. He bought various items of clothing and exchanged some of the vouchers for cash.
Garda Joe Kerr told Mr Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, when evidence was heard last November, that Kelly first took vouchers worth €2,500 in July of that year, then stole vouchers worth €3,000 in October and the following month took vouchers worth €10,000.
The matter came to the notice of Brown Thomas after their internal auditor noticed the final batch of vouchers was missing.
Kelly, who often did cash lodgements for the store, was arrested after he was spotted opening and closing the information desk till when there were no customers about. He was also seen swapping €500 worth of vouchers for cash in the back room and buying a pair of shoes for €450.
Kelly, from Clonshaugh Park, Coolock, pleaded guilty at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three counts of larceny between July and November 2002.
He has no previous convictions.
Judge Desmond Hogan noted Kelly had repaid most of the money and said there were other mitigating factors in the case, such as his co-operation from an early stage and his guilty plea, so that he would give him some work to do rather than impose a custodial sentence.
Garda Kerr said that on his arrest Kelly handed over €500 in cash, and also returned vouchers worth €5,500 from his home. The following day he returned a €500 voucher and €500 cash.
Kelly later gave the gardaí a cheque for €3,000 and returned clothing and jewellery worth €5,125. Garda Kerr said that to date €15,125 had been paid back to Brown Thomas.
Ms Iseult O'Malley, for Kelly, said the outstanding €375 would be repaid. Ms O'Malley added that her client was not a hardened criminal and was not used to court surroundings but he had done his utmost to repair the damage since the matters came to light in that he had compensated the store and co-operated fully with the gardaí from the start.