Teenaged father given ten months for handling stolen phones
By Martina Nee
A teenaged father was given no more chances at Galway District Court this week when he was given 10 months’ detention for handling stolen property and failing to appear.
Josif Grancia (19) with an address given as 205a Lurgan Park, Renmore, and 13 An Lochan, Bothar An Choiste, pleaded guilty last Monday to two counts of handling two Nokia mobile phones, knowing that they were stolen, at The Promenade, Salthill, on June 1, 2009, and to failing to appear in court on October 12, 2009.
Inspector Pat McHugh explained that at 3pm gardai had been observing a group of Romanians at the Promenade. A bag, which had been in the possession of another person, was searched and two Nokia mobile phones which contained no sim cards were found. When the gardai warned that that the suspected stolen items were being seized the defendant claimed that they belonged to him.
The court then heard that the true owners had reported that the phones had been taken from their bags during a night out “when a group tried to sell them flowers”. Inspector McHugh added that the defendant claimed that he had bought the phones from gypsies at Supermac’s. He also said that Grancia has six previous convictions four of which are for theft offences.
Defence solicitor Adrian MacLynn then said that his client was married with one child and asked Judge Mary Fahy to be as lenient as possible.
“Like every other young person he was given some sort of chance. He got got monetary penalties [in the past] but he has persisted. He more or less came into this court and asked for it,” said Judge Fahy before convicting Grancia and imposing a total of 10 months detention.
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