A young man involved in a spate of incidents in Letterkenny, including the theft of €1,500 worth of alcohol from Dunnes Stores, has been jailed for 18 months.
Pardelian Rostas was before Letterkenny District Court on a litany of charges, including theft as well as drug-related and road traffic offences.
The 24-year-old, who has 35 previous convictions, was also banned from driving for ten years and fined a total of €800 by Judge Éiteáin Cunningham.
Rostas address was listed as Mount Southwell, Market Square, Letterkenny, but the accused now has an address in the Dublin 24 area.
Rostas appeared via video link from Cloverhill Prison and the court heard that he was due to be released from custody in July.
Sergeant Maurice Doyle outlined details of the offences.
On April 26, 2024, Rostas entered Dunnes Stores at Fort Lynne Shopping Centre in Letterkenny and removed €1,000 worth of alcohol, before passing all points of payment as he left. Rostas left the car park in a vehicle and none of the property was recovered.
Rostas was charged in relation to a similar offence on March 8, 2024 when he entered the same store and left without paying for €500 worth of alcohol. None of the property was recovered on this occasion either.
The accused man was charged with the unlawful taking of a vehicle from Celtic Apartments on April 9, 2024. Sergeant Doyle told how Rostas attended a residence to purchase a vehicle. Having informed the owner that he wished to carry out an inspection of the engine, he drove away without the owner’s permission.
Rostas was charged with making off without paying for €77.24 worth of diesel from Applegreen, Letterkenny Road, Lifford, on September 10, 2024.
On April 15, 2024, he entered the forecourt at the Dry Arch Complex and filled up a vehicle with fuel. While he entered the shop and paid for some items, he did not pay for the diesel.
He was also charged with the theft of goods worth €123.95 including an air fryer, a kitchen knife set and a pair of shorts from Dunnes Stores, Fort Lynne Shopping Centre.
Rostas was also before the court on several charges contrary to the Road Traffic Act and Misuse of Drugs Act, including drug-driving, the unlawful possession of drugs and driving without insurance.
Mr Patsy Gallagher, solicitor for Rostas, told the court that he had “an uphill struggle on a lot of avenues” when it came to his client.
He said Rostas was married but is now separated and is the father of a young child.
Mr Gallagher said his client is an Irish national who had been making regular trips to see his child in Donegal and was working part-time as a cleaner.
However, alcohol and non-prescriptive drugs “overtook him” and Rostas was also diagnosed with depression.
He overused the medication and that combined with “a quagmire of alcohol and illicit substances” and Rostas, his solicitor added, became a man “who could not feed his habit or feed his addiction”.
Mr Gallagher said the thefts were “very obvious” and Rostas made no attempt to conceal his identity.
Rostas has been in custody since February and Mr Gallagher asked Judge Cunningham to consider his demeanour on this occasion.
He added: “He was here before and he spoke when he shouldn’t have spoken.”
Judge Cunningham noted that there were “quite a number” of sheets before her.
Rostas was sentenced to five months in prison for the theft from the Dry Arch Complex and to five months for the unlawful taking of the vehicle from Celtic Apartments. Those sentences are to run concurrently.
For the theft of €1,000 of alcohol from Dunnes Stores, Rostas was sentenced to 10 months in prison with that term to run consecutively to the other.
Judge Cunningham sentenced Rostas to three months for the theft from the service station in Lifford, to run consecutively to the other sentences.
Fines totalling €800 were imposed on Rostas, who was handed a 10-year driving ban.
In April, Rostas was given a suspended sentence for stealing over €1,000 worth of perfume from Magees Pharmacy in Letterkenny and on that occasion Judge Ciaran Liddy directed him to stay out of Letterkenny.
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