Phone thief crawled along floor of UHG Emergency Dept

A thief crawled on his hands and knees along the floor in A&E at University Hospital, coming up behind a chair from where he stole a patient’s phone.

John Hynes (21), of no fixed abode and c/o COPE Day Centre, Seamus Quirke Road, pleaded guilty before Galway District Court to stealing the phone at A&E on January 27 last.

Hynes also pleaded guilty to stealing a €77 bottle of perfume from Debenham’s earlier that same day. He further pleaded guilty to stealing a girl’s €400 phone from McDonald’s two days earlier on January 25 and to making off without paying for €55 worth of fuel at Texaco filling station on January 9 last.

The phone stolen from both the patient at A&E and the girl in McDonald’s were recovered after Hynes tried to sell them for cash at a pawnbroker’s.

Sgt Cathal Rodgers said Hynes tried to sell the phone for €30 in a pawnbroker’s and Gardai retrieved the phone there.

Hearing that the 21-year-old married man had 19 previous convictions, ten of which were for other thefts, Judge Mary Fahy sentenced Hynes to five months in prison for that, which she made consecutive to a three-month sentence imposed on him in Tralee in June. Concurrent three-month sentences were imposed on the remaining charges.