A WOMAN who was high on drugs went into a Limerick church and stole the keys of a car to drive it to her home in Cork.
Deirdre O’Sullivan (30) of Bride Valley Park, Fair Hill, Cork was arrested when Gardaà found the stolen car parked outside her house.
At Limerick District Court last week, Judge Mary Larkin was told that Ms O’Sullivan went into the Redeemed Christian Church of God on Upper William Street on Friday August 22, 2014 and stole the keys of the car from a woman’s handbag.
She admitted to Gardaà that she stole the keys but said she had no recollection of driving the car 98km back to Cork because she was so high on drugs.
The keys and the car were returned to the owner intact and without any damage.
After she was given details of Ms O’Sullivan’s 159 previous convictions, Judge Larkin said she was “surprised she had any chance to do anything, given the extraordinary amount of time she has spent the in prison”.
Among her previous convictions were charges for theft, burglary, drug offences and a number of driving offences. She was also banned from driving for a number of years.
In 2012, while serving a jail sentence, she told officers at Limerick Prison that she had internally concealed a mobile phone and was unable to remove it. She was taken to hospital to have it surgically removed. She was later jailed for three months and lost prison privileges for 30 days.
Currently serving a four year sentence for another theft matter, she was remanded in continuing custody to appear before Mallow Circuit Court for the judge there to consider activating a suspended sentence imposed two months earlier.
She is due before Limerick District Court later this week for sentencing.
