Heroin addict’s cut-price deal for stolen bicycles

A heroin addict stole six expensive bicycles from around the city and sold each of them for €25 heroin deals.

Shane Davies (23), with addresses at 1 Shantalla Place; 26 Tudor Vale, Oranmore; and 13/14 Fana Burca, Western Distributor Road, Galway, appeared in custody before Galway District Court.

He is currently serving a 11-month prison sentence, imposed at Clover Hill District Court last month for thefts in Dublin and for obstructing Gardai during a drugs search there.

Davies pleaded guilty to stealing the bicycles in Galway, ranging in value from €750 to €80, on various dates in February and March, 2014.

The bicycles were stolen from the NUIG campus, from outside the Kingfisher Club at NUIG, Galway Shopping Centre, Shop Street and Mainguard Street.

Davies pleaded guilty also to stealing a laptop from a car after a Garda caught him hiding the €280 device behind his back at Prospect Hill in June, 2013.

Defence solicitor, Valerie Corcoran, said her client was heavily addicted to heroin at the time and stole the bikes out of desperation to feed his habit, selling them on for €25 each for the price of a ‘fix’.  Some of the bikes, she said, had been recovered.

Davies, she said, was now off heroin without taking methadone and was in serious need to help and support.

Judge Mary Fahy said she remembered Davies from when he was younger but he had disappeared after these offences had been committed and a bench warrant had been issued for his arrest.  He then surfaced in Dublin having been arrested for the offences committed there, she noted.

Judge Fahy imposed two, consecutive four-month sentences on Davies for two of the charges before her court, to be served on the termination of the 11-month sentence he is currently serving.

She imposed another four-month, consecutive sentence on him for another theft, but suspended that sentence for two years on condition he be of good behaviour for two years on his release from prison, and stay away from NUIG in its entirety, including the Kingfisher Club and its grounds.

One-month concurrent sentences were imposed on the remaining charges.

Leave to appeal the sentences was granted.