Jail for Skibb carpenter who stole bus driver’s bag in a ‘moment of madness’

A SKIBBEREEN man sentenced to six months in prison for stealing a bus driver’s bag is to appeal the sentence to the circuit court.

James Herraghty (28) of 4, Sycamore Heights, Skibbereen, first appeared before Skibbereen District Court last October and was given until the February sitting to pay a €1,000 fine on the theft charge.

Colette McCarthy, the solicitor for the accused, initially asked Judge James McNulty for more time because her client, a carpenter, had finished one job and was about to start another, but the judge refused and imposed the sentence.

The matter was left stand and in the afternoon the sum of €1,000 for the fine was produced – that money was in addition to the €1,000 already paid to the bus driver for the bag, valued at €615, that was taken from the unattended bus at Market Street in Skibbereen on July 9th 2023.

But the judge declined to revisit the case, or to impose a suspended sentence. He noted that the accused’s meeting with the probation officer was ‘a non-event’.

He also noted that the accused gave ‘no adequate response’ to a recommendation that he seek treatment for alcohol despite the fact that it was ‘central to his offending’.

In mitigation, Ms McCarthy said her client had been asleep but did return to the unattended bus and took the bag, which contained a VW key, a Toyota key, a pair of earphones, cash, and a house key.

‘It was a moment of madness,’ said the solicitor, who asked for recognisances to be fixed for an appeal to the next sitting of Skibbereen Circuit Court.