A woman has been jailed for stealing a packet of chicken fillets from a frozen food store in Co Donegal.
Florica Rostas appeared at Letterkenny District Court charged with taking the 25 fillets at The Igloo in Ballybofey on April 19th last.
Ms Rostas, a widow with three children, entered the shop with some children at was found with the food in her coat when she left the shop.
Solicitor Patsy Gallagher said he appreciated it had been claimed in the media previously that people from Ms Rosta’s country, Romania, had a reputation for such behaviour.
But he added “It’s all that she knew. She did this to feed her family and that’s the reality of her situation.”
However, Judge Paul Kelly said that Ms Rostas, of The Green, Convoy, aged 35 had 19 previous convictions and the vast majority of those were for theft.
Most of those sentences were suspended jail sentences and some fines.
Judge Kelly referred to the previous suspended sentences and said “It ends today. One month in prison.”