A CAR thief has vowed to turn things around in his life now that his partner is pregnant with their first baby. 20-year-old Thomas Whelan of 102 Hyde Road, with 83 previous convictions, the majority of which related to road traffic violations, was before Limerick District Court last week facing two charges. Pleading guilty to the offences, the Court heard that Thomas Whelan was found on the third floor of an area of the Mid Western Regional Hospital that was under construction. The area in question was sealed off from the public with access prohibited.
The Court heard that security staff had detained the accused on the date in question and gardai arrested and charged the accused man on February 18 last.
A charge was also before the Courts where the accused was stopped by gardai on April 3 last while driving a stolen car without any valid driving documentation.
Darach McCarthy, solicitor for the accused said that on July 10 last his client received a nine month prison sentence that was backdated to April 7. Those matters for which he received the prison sentence related to similar road traffic violations.
The solicitor told the Court that his client had been “regularly taking cars in the past” but that he was in custody since early April on similar matters.
Thomas Whelan said that he wanted to turn his life around on hearing that his partner was due the couple’s first child, but Judge Eamon O’Brien said that Whelan had an “appalling record”.
Mr McCarthy added that his client did not have a father figure in his life while growing up as Whelan’s father had been imprisoned for a lengthy sentence while the accused was still young. A hand-written letter penned by Thomas Whelan, while in prison, was handed in to the judge.
Judge O’Brien said that it was “not an excuse for such a record” and that “many people have grown up with just their mother at home and they have turned out fine – some far better in fact”
Mr McCarthy countered by saying that that was indeed the driving force behind the new attitude of the accused as he “wanted to be around for his child and be that father figure that he never had”.
Judge O’Brien convicted and sentenced Thomas Whelan to eight months in prison on the section 112 Road Traffic Offence and ordered that the sentence run concurrently with the time he is already serving.
Thomas Whelan was also disqualified from driving for two years.
