A homeless man has been jailed for ten months for what a judge called an almost farcical attempt at robbing a bookies in Tralee.
Tralee Circuit Court was told 47-year-old John Paul Farrell, who had been residing at a homeless hostel in Killarney, was highly intoxicated during the incident.
Mr Farrell wore a balaclava, but was identified by an eagle-eyed garda who noticed he was missing a finger similar to the man captured on the bookies’ CCTV.
Mr Farrell entered the Boylesports on Edward Street in Tralee at around 4:40pm on Saturday 1st November last year, wearing a balaclava and with his hood up.
He shouted at two staff members who were behind the counter, demanding money.
The court heard Mr Farrell attempted to open the latch to go behind the desk, and even tried mounting the counter, but he was so drunk he was unable to do either.
The staff refused to hand him money, but Mr Farrell put his hand inside his jacket to insinuate he was armed; staff had a genuine fear he was armed, but this was described as a crude attempt at imitating a weapon.
Mr Farrell was in the bookies for about two minutes before fleeing as far as the greenway car park, where he was so drunk he fell and hit his head, and was brought by ambulance to UHK.
Gardaí spoke to him the next day, and identified him as the man from the attempted robbery because he was missing a finger.
Mr Farrell initially told gardaí it was a Halloween prank, but when shown the CCTV footage, he made a full admission.
Defending barrister Katie O’Connell said Mr Farrell, who has 48 previous convictions, was not going to be winning criminal of the year any time soon, but this was out of character for him.
She said his offending is borne out of addiction, but he is sober since going into custody after the incident.
Speaking in court himself, Mr Farrell apologised to the staff and said it was a stupid thing to do, that he is a good person who is doing a computer course in prison.
Judge Ronan Munro commended the bravery of the two staff members, who he said were two crime-fighters standing firm in the face of someone demanding money.
He said the mitigating factors were Mr Farrell’s gold-standard signed plea of guilty, that it was bordering on a farcical attempt, and he’s apologetic.
He jailed Mr Farrell for two years, with the final 14 months suspended, meaning he has a maximum of six months left to serve.
