Increased sentence for woman who stole €1,400 worth of goods from Ashbourne store

A 25 year-old woman had her sentence increased from four to nine months in Trim District Court of Appeals after the judge said she has “no regard for law and order”.

Rahella Lingurar, from Maelruans , Townspark Tallaght was appealing the severity of a four month prison sentence she received on 27th July last year in Trim District Court for a theft charge.

The court heard on 22nd February last year Gardaí received a report of a car acting suspiciously. The car was later searched by Gardaí and a considerable amount of stolen property was found.

A report was later received from Choice in Ashbourne where two women filled two trolleys and a canvas with a variety of items and left the store.

These items included an air fryer, roaster, other electrical items and various household goods such as cleaning supplies, totalling €1,400 in value.

The court heard that a young child was also involved who opened the automatic entry only doors and the two women used this to leave the store, all of which was captured on CCTV.

Sgt Brady told the court she has 21 previous convictions, the majority of which were for thefts with the most recent being on 28th February 2020. 16 of these offences were committed when she was juvenile. This excluded a more recent offence which occurred in 2024 that was detailed in a probation report submitted to Judge John Martin. It detailed how on 2nd May of that year Ms Lingurar stole items from multiple stores, including H&M and River Island, worth a total value of €1,100.

Defending Barrister Paul Noctor told the court she is a parent of two children and has found part time work since this incident. The court heard she realised the seriousness of this after her sentence and assured the court she will not offend again. BL Noctor also told the court she is willing to pay compensation.

Judge John Martin said the Ms Lingurar has “no regard for law and order” and got a child to participate in “on this level of criminality”. Judge Martin said the accused was thinking "I can’t afford it so I’ll take it and I’ll bring a child on it”. The judge said when people cant afford it, “we do without it”.

Judge Martin increased her sentence from four months to nine months in prison.