A Tralee man who snatched a 90-year-old man’s wallet from his hands containing €300 in cash is to spend two years in prison.
26-year-old Ryan Horgan, of no fixed abode, admitted to robbing the wallet after calling to the man’s door in Tralee, pretending he needed money to get a bus to Cork.
Mr Horgan also admitted to stealing a woman’s handbag from her house in Tralee town centre, after entering her home on the pretence he was retrieving a football.
Tralee Circuit Court was told that on 12th February this year, Mr Horgan knocked at the door at the house of a 90-year-old man living at Castlecountess, Tralee.
Mr Horgan told him he was from Cork and said he needed money to get a bus back to Cork, and the man took out his wallet.
Mr Horgan then jumped at him and grabbed his wallet, and took off with it after a short struggle.
The wallet contained €300 in cash, the man’s bank card and social welfare card.
The man did not opt to write a victim impact statement, but told Garda Tom Sugrue he had lived in the house all his life and never got such a fright.
In a separate incident four days later, Mr Horgan called to a house in St John’s Park, Tralee, and told the woman who answered the door that he wanted to retrieve a football from her back garden.
The woman told him she would get it for him, but Mr Horgan was insistent and pushed past her into the house.
Mr Horgan took off with the woman’s handbag, which contained €170 in cash and her bank card.
Gardaí were called and found Mr Horgan within 100 yards of the property, when he admitted to robbing the bag and money.
The court heard Mr Horgan, who has 97 previous convictions, is heavily addicted to drugs and gardaí believe he was taking money to pay off a drug debt.
The court was told Mr Horgan has lived in various homeless accommodations for a very long time, and has been estranged from his family due to his addictions.
Defending barrister Richard Liston said his client is very apologetic and aghast at his own actions, and Mr Liston pleaded with Judge Sinead Behan to give him light at the end of the tunnel.
Judge Behan gave him a headline sentence of four years, reduced to three years with the final 12 months suspended for two years.
It means Mr Horgan will serve a maximum of two years in prison.
