{"id":504524,"date":"2026-06-17T15:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/504524\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:21:09","slug":"forty-one-people-due-in-court-following-garda-shoplifting-crackdown-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/504524\/","title":{"rendered":"Forty-one people due in court following Garda shoplifting crackdown \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dublin Metropolitan Police east Garda<\/a> division contains some of the largest and best known shopping centres in the country \u2013 the Dundrum Town Centre, the Frascati Centre, Carrickmines Park and D\u00fan Laoghaire<\/a> shopping centre are among several in the area. <\/p>\n

Shoplifting is a relatively minor crime, but the cumulative effect of it has serious implications for retailers who lose thousands of euro every year. <\/p>\n

In response, garda\u00ed in south Dublin set up Operation T\u00e1irge (goods) to target prolific shoplifters and shoplifting gangs. The special unit was organised to tackle the problem in the area using surveillance and CCTV to identify offenders. To date, 81 people have been arrested under the operation. <\/p>\n

Forty-one people charged with various offences under Operation T\u00e1irge were expected in D\u00fan Laoghaire District Court on Wednesday, but their appearances coincided with a three-day nationwide solicitors\u2019 strike in a protest over legal aid fees. <\/p>\n

As a consequence, most of those before the courts had no legal representation and were put back to later dates, many of them to December 7th, by Judge Anne Watkin. She also issued bench warrants for several accused individuals who did not turn up. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Shoplifting: More than 8,000 arrests as garda\u00ed focus on retail crime gangs in crackdownOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There was 15 juveniles arrested under Operation T\u00e1irge, but they were dealt with separately. <\/p>\n

Supt Gordon Wolfe of Blackrock Garda station said Operation T\u00e1irge was set up in response to a request from retailers for the garda\u00ed to clamp down on shoplifters. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday you\u2019ll see the product of all that work… as part of a strategic goal to combat retail crime and support our businesses,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Supt Brian Halligan of D\u00fan Laoghaire Garda station said they will be continuing the operation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very aware that the combination effect of [shoplifting] has had a significant impact on retailers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Retailers in Dublin: \u2018shoplifting is a huge concern\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our engagement with the business community, we have found there is a cumulative effect of those retail crimes. Businesses are feeling it. We are very committed to working with those businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most popular stolen items are perfumes, sunglasses and other goods that are small but potentially valuable. <\/p>\n

However, there has also been a campaign of theft of meat by organised gangs, which can steal as much as \u20ac600 in high-end cuts in a single raid. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dublin Metropolitan Police east Garda division contains some of the largest and best known shopping centres in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,16089,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-504524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-dun-laoghaire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504524","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=504524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}