CITY TRIBUNE
‘Contactless’ bank cards a bonanza for thieves
The ease with which ‘contactless’ bank cards can be used by thieves was highlighted at Galway District Court, when a woman who found one such card stuck in a bank machine went on a spending spree.
Ramona Novacovici (38), 31 Fearann Rí, Doughiska, pleaded guilty to 13 charges of theft which occurred immediately after she found a debit card – which an elderly man had absent-mindedly left behind him at an ATM machine – on August 4 last.
Sergeant Georgina Lohan said the man went to the ATM room at the Bank of Ireland in Eyre Square at 12.24pm to get a mini statement and left his debit card stuck in the machine when he exited the bank a short time later.
Novacovici found the card in the ATM and took it, embarking on a shopping spree by using the card’s contactless payment facility.
The court heard that among the items the mother-of-three bought was a schoolbag for one of her children.
She used the card at JD Sports in Eyre Square, making purchases worth €28, €30, €30 and €21.50 in four separate transactions, all on the same date.
She used the card in five transactions on the same date at Elvery’s Sports in Eyre Square, purchasing various items for €30, €28, €14, €30 and €28.
She went on to buy other items that same day in Dealz, at Centra in Renmore and at the Briarhill Shopping Centre, not far from her home, before she threw the card away.
Judge Mary Fahy became incensed when she heard Novacovici had used the stolen card to buy a schoolbag for her child and she wondered what sort of example the accused was setting for her children.
The judge noted that all of the purchases had to be under €30, given it was a contactless card.
Sgt Lohan agreed, but she said the total amount the accused had spent using the stolen card came to €246.85 and all of the purchases had been made on the same day in a very short space of time.
“That is the difficulty with contactless cards. I’m sure there are people in court turning that over in their heads now,” the judge added.
She then asked if the accused had been following the man or if she had been watching other customers to see if they left their cards behind.
Sgt Lohan said it appeared from CCTV footage that it had been an opportunistic theft and the woman had not been following the man.
“It would just make it more sinister if she had been following him, but the State accepts the theft was opportunistic,” Judge Fahy said.
Defence solicitor, Olivia Traynor said her client was a Romanian national who had moved to Ireland 15 years ago. Her husband had died four years ago and she now suffered from physical and mental health issues.
Ms Traynor said Novacovici had accepted responsibility immediately when questioned by Garda Brendan Owens about the theft of the card and the subsequent spending spree.
Ms Traynor handed €300 compensation into court, which the accused had brought for the elderly card owner.
Judge Fahy asked if the shops would be compensated or were the goods recovered.
Ms Traynor said the items included clothing, cigarettes and the schoolbag, which her client had kept.
Judge Fahy had Novacovici assessed for a community service order and she was deemed a suitable candidate by the probation service.
Judge Fahy directed she carry out 200 hours of community service, or serve five months in prison in lieu, for stealing the card.
She imposed similar but concurrent hours of community service for the remaining charges, or one month in prison on each in lieu, to run concurrently.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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