A JUDGE has directed a solicitor representing a mother of five – who claims she was forced to shoplift to feed her family because she received no financial help from the State – to keep the Department of Social Protection informed about her plight.
“I don’t want five children on the side of the road or in a house with no power and a State body saying later they did not know about the situation,” Judge William Hamill said at Dundalk District Court yesterday.
Guna Levcenkova (29), with addresses at Ath Leathan Racecourse Road, Dundalk, and Beechmount Drive, Cox’s Demesne, Dundalk, had previously admitted 12 charges of theft from supermarkets and shops in Dundalk and Drogheda on dates between February 10th, 2010 and July 23rd, 2011. The case had been adjourned for a probation report to be prepared on the defendant.
All the charges related to shoplifting of food and clothes, defence solicitor Seán T O’Reilly told the court. He said his client had also been stopped on five other occasions by shopkeepers and had items taken from her without gardaí being informed, as it appeared the shopkeepers knew about her circumstances.
Mr O’Reilly said he had represented the defendant for 2½ years but all her applications for jobseeker’s payments, back-to-school allowances and child benefit had been refused and appealed without success.
The refusals were being further appealed, the court heard. Mr O’Reilly said his client currently owed €1,215 to the ESB and €900 in rent to her landlord.
“The ESB have attempted to call on her but she hasn’t opened the door. The landlord has been more than reasonable,” he said.
The court heard the defendant had occasionally secured some low-paid employment which allowed her to pay some bills, and had received some emergency funding from the HSE, but this had now stopped. She had been helped by the people of Dundalk and the local Latvian and Lithuanian communities “but the same could not be said of the State services”.
Judge Hamill remarked that action would have to be taken if the matter became a child welfare issue. “Someone will have to address the issue if the ESB is cut off or the family put on the side of the road,” he said.
Replying to a query from the solicitor, the judge directed him to continue to inform the Department of Social Protection about the situation. He remanded the defendant on continuing bail and adjourned the case until August 30th, but warned that the matter could not “go on ad infinitum”.