{"id":370600,"date":"2026-03-29T00:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/370600\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T00:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:36:08","slug":"serial-offender-jailed-following-daytime-burglary-at-well-known-limerick-pub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/370600\/","title":{"rendered":"Serial offender jailed following daytime burglary at well-known Limerick pub"},"content":{"rendered":"

A LIMERICK man with 162 previous convictions has been jailed for three years after he admitted breaking into a well-known city centre pub.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robert Benn, aged 33, of Kilmurry Court, Garryowen had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of burglary at the Red Hen pub on Patrick Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limerick Circuit Court<\/a> heard that on January 20, 2025, Mr Benn gained access to the premises through a fire exit at 2:45pm. At this time, the pub was closed to the public but a cleaner, Silvia Suarez, was present and working.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Benn, who appeared in court via video link from Limerick Prison, was seen on CCTV going through this woman\u2019s jacket and taking a cardholder. He also made some attempts to open the till – which were unsuccessful – and then left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The now 33-year-old subsequently visited Keanes Jewellers where he used a gift card which he took from the cleaner\u2019s cardholder. He also purchased cigarettes and scratch cards at a nearby Centra store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was the following day that Ms Suarez realised her cardholder was missing. She contacted the jewellers but was told it was \u201ctoo late\u201d in regards to her voucher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Benn, who was represented by Aaron Desmond BL, was arrested two days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Passing sentence, Judge Colin Daly said harm was done by way of the gift card being used, as well as it being a “grave inconvenience” to the \u201chardworking\u201d Ms Suarez, who had to replace her cards.<\/p>\n

Keys, which were taken from the Red Hen, were also never retrieved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Calling this an \u201copportunistic theft,\u201d Judge Daly noted Mr Benn\u2019s 162 previous convictions, 119 of which relate to similar offences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He set a headline sentence of four years’ imprisonment but taking into account Mr Benn’s early guilty plea he reduced the sentence by 25% to one of three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limerick Circuit heard that Benn has since apologised to both the victim and the court. He wrote a long letter and is said to be motivated to \u201cchange\u201d following on from a long history of addiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Desmond said his client has been in custody since his arrest and that he now carries out trusted work in Limerick Prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge Daly says it appears that Mr Benn is a \u201cpositive\u201d individual with a supportive family. He sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment with the final year suspended for a period of three years on condition that he enters into a \u20ac700 bond to keep the peace as well as be on good behaviour and engage with the Probation Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sentence was backdated to when Mr Benn was first brought into custody on January 22, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A LIMERICK man with 162 previous convictions has been jailed for three years after he admitted breaking into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[56271,61,60,67397,44,36769,43],"class_list":["post-370600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-garryowen","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick-circuit-court","tag-limerick-city","tag-limerick-courthouse","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}