Letterkenny Courthouse.
A mechanic who received and stored stolen goods from burglaries across Donegal has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Kamil Luniewski rented a lock-up shed in Termon from which stolen goods were brought and which he paid cash for.
Luniewski would then take the goods, often scrap metal, to an unsuspecting Letterkenny dealer where he would receive payment.
In total he took NINE trailer loads of scrap metal to the dealer in a short period of time.
However, when the Polish national brought a car door to the dealer in Letterkenny, it was subsequently found that it was stolen when another man tried to buy it.
Gardai then traced Luniewski and put his premises under surveillance.
Details of the elaborate Garda operation were given at Letterkenny Circuit Court yesterday when Luniewski faced six charges of handling stolen goods..
Garda Gerard Dalton told the court how there had been a number of burglaries around the time in the Carrigart and Creeslough areas between November 2013 and February, 2014.
As well as the theft of tools, a large number of copper cylinder boilers were ripped out of houses leaving many homes flooded.
When Gardai raided the lock-up rented by the accused on January 28th, they found tools and also boilers stolen in various burglaries.
Luniewski was interviewed by Gardai and subsequently made admissions to buying the goods.
His barrister Fiona Crawford told the court that her client knew deep down that the deals were too good to be true and that he now felt like an idiot.
She said her client was now in a relationship and was working for his sister in her wholesale business in Bridgend and was taking the case “on the chin.”
The accused had €2,200 in court by way of compensation to his victims.
Judge John O’Hagan said that while the accused was charged with handling stolen goods, he stressed that if there were no ‘handlers or receivers’ then there would be no thefts.
He added that this was the most important person in a burglary as it is the person who goes and gets the money and added that Luniewski was “put to his neck in it.”
He sentenced the accused to 3 years for each offence to run concurrently but ordered that 18 months be taken off the sentence for the plea.
Luniewski was led away in handcuffs as his girlfriend cried at the back of the court.