Judge bursts champagne thief’s bubble

A shoplifter with a taste for very expensive champagne will not be sampling the bubbly anytime soon, after he received a five-month sentence at Galway District Court.

Colm Keegan (52), with former addresses at 19 St Patrick’s Avenue, Wicklow town and Woodquay Hostel, Galway, pleaded guilty to stealing two bottles of Cristal champagne – worth €220 a bottle – from McCambridge’s, Shop Street, on two separate occasions on February 29 last.

Keegan also pleaded guilty to stealing assorted bottles of vodka, whiskey and brandy worth €568 from Dunnes Stores, Edward Square, on March 25 last year, and to stealing a pair of Ray-Ban sun glasses worth €165, from Brown Thomas on February 8 last.

He pleaded guilty also to the theft of a €117 bottle of perfume from Debenham’s on January 27 last year, along with the theft of more alcohol from Nestor’s Supervalu, Fr Griffin Road, and from Dunnes Stores again on March 27 last year.

Reading down through the plethora of theft charges, Judge Mary Fahy remarked Keegan had very expensive tastes when she came to the charges relating to the theft of the champagne from McCambridge’s and the sunglasses from BT.

“I see you stole Cristal champagne. Your tastes are very expensive. That’s commonly bought by rappers like Jay Z, who throw it all about the place,” the judge joked.

Defence solicitor, Adrian MacLynn corrected Judge Fahy’s pronunciation of “Cristal”.

The judge quickly reeled him in, telling the solicitor her pronunciation was correct.

“It’s Cristal and it’s €220 a bottle,” she told him.

Some of the female solicitors, including Olivia Traynor and Valerie Corcoran, vigorously nodded in agreement with Judge Fahy’s pronunciation of the expensive champagne brand.

The judge also noted Keegan had stolen a pair of Ray-Bans from Brown Thomas.

“You do have expensive tastes, don’t you?,” she persisted.

He told her he stole the items to sell them on for drink.

Mr MacLynn said his client had a alcohol problem which was at the root of all his offending and he knew he was going to get a custodial sentence.

Inspector Brendan Carroll said Keegan had 15 previous convictions, including ones for thefts.  He had received a suspended six-month sentence for another theft in a Dublin court in February.

Judge Fahy said some of the Galway offences had occurred while Keegan was on bail and she sentenced him to a total of five months for the two thefts from McCambridge’s, consecutive to the four-month sentence he is currently serving.

She imposed two further, five and one-month consecutive sentences for some of the remaining charges which she suspended for two years on condition Keegan attend a rehabilitation programme for his alcohol addiction, be of good behaviour and stay out of Galway city and county for two years.