{"id":539203,"date":"2026-06-17T03:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/539203\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T03:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:53:16","slug":"man-accidentally-set-off-panic-alarm-while-attempting-to-rob-ranelagh-ice-cream-parlour-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/539203\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accidentally set off panic alarm while attempting to rob Ranelagh ice cream parlour \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man with 117 previous convictions has been jailed for stealing an iPhone after garda\u00ed<\/a> used the \u201cfind my phone\u201d feature to track him down. <\/p>\n

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court<\/a> heard that Carl McGuinness (31) went to an ice-cream parlour in Ranelagh<\/a> on the evening of February 11th, 2025, carrying a hammer. He told the shop manager to open the till and banged the hammer on the counter several times. <\/p>\n

The manager told McGuinness she could not open the till. He then leant across the counter and tried to open the till, accidentally triggering the panic alarm.<\/p>\n

An investigating garda told prosecuting barrister Simon Donogh that McGuinness then grabbed the woman\u2019s iPhone 13, worth approximately \u20ac550, and escaped on a bike.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed responded to the panic alarm and used the \u201cfind my phone\u201d feature to track down McGuinness, who was nearby. He unsuccessfully attempted to flee and, when searched, the iPhone and the hammer were found. The phone was returned to the woman, who declined to provide a victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

McGuinness made full admissions and identified himself on CCTV. He told garda\u00ed he had a drug problem and took the phone to sell it to buy crack cocaine. His previous convictions include three for burglary, one for robbery, two for theft, two for assault and two for attempted robbery.<\/p>\n

McGuinness, of Beneavin Road, Finglas East, Dublin 11, came forward from the District Court on a signed plea of guilty to robbery. He was on bail at the time.<\/p>\n

He is currently serving a sentence of nine years, which was imposed in March for offences involving the taking of vehicles, attempted theft and dangerous driving around Dublin on dates between August 2024 and May 2025.<\/p>\n

The investigating garda agreed with defence barrister Pieter Le Vert that there was no physical contact between his client and the woman, but that she was very scared. It was further accepted that McGuinness was co-operative with the investigation, apologised to the woman when interviewed and has experienced homelessness.<\/p>\n

Le Vert submitted to the court that his client\u2019s offending is linked to his addiction. He is doing well in custody, and hopes to address his issues. He asked the court to take into account his client\u2019s remorse and to mark the seriousness of his offending without extending his time in custody.<\/p>\n

Judge Orla Crowe noted that McGuinness was \u201ccaught red-handed\u201d as a result of \u201cgood fortune\u201d and the quick response of garda\u00ed. She said addiction has \u201cclearly blighted\u201d not only McGuinness\u2019s life but also those of the victims of his offending.<\/p>\n

The judge said the use of the hammer, McGuinness\u2019s previous convictions and the effect on the injured party were aggravating. Having considered the mitigation, Crowe imposed a sentence of 3\u00bd years. She directed that this sentence should be consecutive to part of the global sentence McGuinness is currently serving for the car-related offences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man with 117 previous convictions has been jailed for stealing an iPhone after garda\u00ed used the \u201cfind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,24443,73168,19715,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,63497,7,8],"class_list":["post-539203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-circuit-court","tag-criminal-courts","tag-district-court","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-ranelagh","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116763427337372010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}