Pram in one hand and road cutter in the other
“I would say he was caught red-handed with stolen property,” Detective Garda Padraig Harrington said at Cork District Court.
Kevin Coade denied the charge and said he was pushing the stroller with an infant in it when he saw the Husqvarna machine and decided to return it to the building site at the courthouse on Anglesea Street, Cork.
Detective Garda Padraig Harrington concluded when he saw Coade at lunchtime that he was about to stash the stolen property behind recycling bins at the corner of Union Quay and Parliament Bridge.
Coade from 2 Friars Walk, Cork, said he was attempting to return the road cutter to the owner which had been taken from the building site at the courthouse on Anglesea Street. Kevin Coade claimed to have found it on Anglesea Street.
Coade said: “I had to sign on daily at Anglesea Street. I was heading over to town. The child was six weeks at the time.
“I was placing [the road cutter] by the bins facing the direction of the site. When I came out it was at the edge of the footpath.
“I knocked at the door. I decided to bring it along the quay. I thought it would be theirs,” Coade said.
He said he was doing so as a favour because staff there had been helpful to him when his own bike had been stolen in the area.
Judge Olann Kelleher said he did not accept his explanation and convicted him.
Det Garda Harrington said Coade was on bail for a burglary at the time of the offence and is now serving a two-year sentence for that.
Judge Kelleher sentenced him to four months in prison yesterday which had to be consecutive to the two years he was serving because the offence was committed while he was on bail.
