Two men have been remanded on bail in connection with the alleged theft of mobile phones in Killarney last Saturday night.
39-year-old Octavian Donciu of 3 Glebe House, The Lawns, Finglas, Dublin 13 and 35-year-old Catalin Peptu of 15 Knock Riada, Chapelizod, Dublin 20 appeared before Tralee District Court this morning.
They were both charged with 17 counts of handling stolen property, namely mobile phones contrary to Section 17 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
They were represented by solicitor Padraig O’Connell.
While on patrol in Killarney on Saturday evening, Gardaí stopped a vehicle in the Friary Downs area.
They searched it and discovered the phones, which they believed to have been stolen.
These included ten iPhones, four Samsungs, and one Honor, a OnePlus, and one Google Pixel phone.
Gardaí have since identified the owners of most of the mobile phones and efforts are now being made to return the phones to their owners.
Garda Stephen Foley and Garda Gerald P.O. Sullivan gave evidence of the arrest, charge and caution of both accused.
Octavian Donciu gave no reply to 16 of the 17 charges put to him.
When the final charge wad read to him, he told Gardaí he “didn’t know it was stolen”.
Catalin Peptu only replied to the final two of his 17 charges saying “I did not steal from these people” and “you find in the car this. I did not know if it was stolen or not stolen.”
Sergeant Chris Manton told Judge David Waters that it is the state’s view that the thefts were organised, but that directions were not yet available from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Both men were granted bail subject to several conditions, including that they both sign on at Finglas Garda Station between 9am and 9pm every Saturday and that they remain outside Kerry, except for court appearances and bone fide legal appointments.
Judge David Waters refused jurisdiction.
The case will be before Tralee Court on the 6th January for the book of evidence, but the men will not need to be there in person on that date.