Father of 10 charged with stealing groceries

A father of 10 appeared before Trim District Court charged with stealing groceries from an Aldi store on three consecutive days.

Thomas Reaney from Knightsbrook Close, Trim, pleaded guilty to the theft of a total of €154 of goods over three dates 18th, 19th and 20th December last year at Aldi at Jonathan Swift Street in the town.

Sergeant Declan Brady said the defendant had eight previous convictions, which included a theft earlier this year. His solicitor Ciara Burke explained that two of the 47 year-old‘s children were not well and also their mother. He stole the groceries because he could not afford them.

Judge Eirinn McKiernan said she accepted the defendant’s situation but he couldn’t be stealing. He had previous convictions for similar offences.

She sentenced him to one month in jail, which she suspended for 12 months.