A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after stealing a bank card and going on a spending spree.
Paul Ganju was handed a five-month suspended sentence when he appeared before Judge Éiteáin Cunningham at Letterkenny District Court.
Ganju pleaded guilty to stealing a bank card on May 15, 2022.
Ganju, a 53-year-old with an address at Highbury Apartments, High Road, Letterkenny, stole a bank card belonging to a Paul Hegarty at High Road, Letterkenny. Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that Mr Hegarty reported his bank card missing while he was socialising.
Mr Hegarty noticed that his card had been used at seven different times on the same date. Over the course of an hour, Ganju used the card seven times at both Lidl, Pearse Road, Letterkenny and Kernan’s Spar, Lower Main Street. The sums spent ranged from €2.55 to €24.92 and amounted to a total of €99.28.
Ganju was subsequently identified on CCTV. The Following day, Gardai spoke with Ganju, who admitted the incidents and handed over the card.
In the case of each he was charged that he did dishonestly by deception induce an employee at locations including Lidl and Kernan’s to do an act, to wit, accept bank card property of Paul Hegarty as payment for products with the intention of making gain for yourself or another.
The charges are contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
He was charged with stealing Mr Hegarty’s card, an offence contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
Judge Cunningham considered a probation and welfare report prepared for Ganju and said the offences represented “quite a significant level of deception”. While the Probation Service recommended a further adjournment, the accused’s solicitor, Mr Frank Murphy, said his client wanted the matter dealt with.
The court previously heard that Ganju originally hailed from Romania, has been in Ireland for around 12 years and a tragedy that befell the defendant set off a sequence of events in his life.
Ganju was convicted and sentenced to five months in prison with the entirety of the sentence suspended for 12 months upon the accused entering into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
Ganju was also before the court on a public order charge relating to an incident on October 30, 2022. Gardai were called to a report of a male causing a disturbance outside the Warehouse on High Road, Letterkenny.
Ganju was directed to leave, but returned 10 minutes later and was standing in front of traffic shouting at Gardai to arrest him. Ganju was ‘highly intoxicated’ at the time, the court heard.
A charge contrary to section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, 1994 as amended by Section 22 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act, 2008 was marked as taken into consideration by Judge Cunningham.
Ganju was previously disqualified from driving following an incident at Rathdonnell, Trentagh, on September 23, 2022.
Gardai responded to a single-vehicle road traffic collision and a strong smell of alcohol was detected from Ganju, who admitted driving the vehicle. A subsequent breath test showed a reading of 89 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Ganju undertook to produce his licence and insurance, but did not do so.
Ganju, having previously been put off the road for six years previously on the drink-driving charge, was handed a four-year driving ban and a €100 fine for driving without insurance.
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