Man won't extra time in jail despite admitting theft

A father of three serving a prison sentence after a suspended jail term for motoring offences was activated in the Circuit Criminal Court just before Christmas has escaped a further spell behind bars, despite admitting stealing over €400 from a Mullingar shop.

Joe Mears, 1 Richmond Street, Longford, was before last Thursday’s sitting of Mullingar District Court charged with the theft of €411 worth of clothing from TK Maxx, Fairgreen Shopping Centre, Mullingar, Westmeath on June 10, 2025.

Mr Mears was jailed on November 20 last year when Judge Kenneth Connolly triggered a suspended five-year sentence for a sale or supply drugs charge that had originally been suspended for seven years.

The accused was under the terms of that suspended sentence when he was caught driving without a licence or insurance in March 2023.

The 33-year-old’s sentence, the court heard, is due to expire until May 2027. Judge Bernadette Owens was informed by defence counsel Andrea Callan, BL, of her client’s guilty plea to the shoplifting charge.

Sgt Sheila Kenny said Mr Mears entered the store with a woman and almost immediately began picking out clothing from the rails. She said the accused was the first to leave, and the woman ran from the shop soon after.

Closing the state case, Sgt Kenny said Mr Mears had 27 previous convictions, the most recent last month a 10-year disqualification for driving without insurance.

Ms Callan, for Mr Mears, said the incident in question was not in keeping with much of his previous offending. She said there was a certain context that had precipitated her client’s actions, chiefly the “significant financial difficulties” in the Mears household at the time.

“It was a situation where (he) was taking clothing for the family,” she said, adding that it was not the “kind of behaviour” Mr Mears had been previously known for.

Ms Callan also pleaded with the court for leniency, given how Mr Mears’s desire to return to his family as soon as possible.

That intention, she added, had been hastened by the ill-health one of Mr Mears’ three children and the prospect of surgery later this year.

Ms Callan said Mr Mears’s remorse had been demonstrated by him taking “full responsibility” for the theft and his willingness to pay back the total €411 sum in compensation.

Having listened to those pleas, Judge Owens agreed with the assertions put forward of how theft had not featured in Mr Mears’s criminal past and decided against adding any further custodial time to what he was already serving.

Mr Mears was given a four-month sentence to run concurrently to his existing sentence.