{"id":50617,"date":"2025-09-29T12:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/50617\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:54:12","slug":"prolific-limerick-shoplifter-with-tragic-past-sentenced-to-20-months-imprisonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/50617\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Prolific’ Limerick shoplifter with tragic past sentenced to 20 months imprisonment"},"content":{"rendered":"

A LIMERICK<\/a> woman, who was previously the victim of two high profile and violent assaults, has been sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for a spate of shoplifting offences.<\/p>\n

Simone Lee, who has 34 previous convictions, was described by Judge Patricia Harney as a \u201cchronic drug addict\u201d and a \u201cprolific shoplifter\u201d when she appeared before her at Limerick District Court.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old pleaded guilty to more than a dozen theft charges relating a variety of items including vodka worth \u20ac182, groceries and books worth \u20ac15.<\/p>\n

Ms Lee was also before the court charged with possession of a small amount of cocaine and with failing to appear in court on three separate occasions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of euros worth of items from a number of shops in Limerick city on various dates between March 2024 and September 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More: What renting your home during Limerick’s hosting of Ryder Cup 2027 could earn you<\/a><\/p>\n

An appeal against the severity of the sentence imposed has been lodged by Ms Lee\u2019s solicitor, Darach McCarthy, who said his client is “very apologetic”.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inspector Liam Wallace, who presented the case, asked Judge Harney to impose a number of conditions on the defendant pending the conclusion of her appeal.<\/p>\n

Ms Lee was ordered to stay away from Dunnes Stores at the Jetland Shopping Centre, Tesco at Arthur’s Quay, Penney\u2019s, O\u2019Connell Street, Lidl at Childers Road and O\u2019Mahony\u2019s Bookshop, O’Connell Street.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tragic past\u00a0<\/p>\n

Simone Lee is a survivor of two high-profile assaults, including a \u201cfalse imprisonment\u201d which was mentioned by Mr McCarthy during his submission to the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Lee endured serious injuries as a result of the brutal attacks, one of which left her in a coma for three weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Addressing the court, Mr McCarthy appealed to Judge Harney to consider Ms Lee\u2019s circumstances, stating that she \u201chad a very, very difficult upbringing\u201d and \u201cneeds professional help\u201d.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that Ms Lee\u2019s story is \u201cvery sad\u201d,\u00a0Judge Harney said: \u201cThe company and the circumstances that she would find herself in would not be salubrious.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Judge said the offending had occurred over a “protracted period” and she further stated that \u201cher record is appalling\u201d and warranted a prison sentence.<\/p>\n

She imposed consecutive sentences totalling 20 months – just under the maximum of 24 months that can be imposed in the district court.<\/p>\n

She refused a request from Mr McCarthy to partly-suspend the sentence.<\/p>\n

A number of the charges were taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A LIMERICK woman, who was previously the victim of two high profile and violent assaults, has been sentenced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,36770,61,60,1396,36769,7250,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-50617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-arthurs-quay-shopping-centre","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-limerick","13":"tag-limerick-courthouse","14":"tag-limerick-district-court","15":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50617","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=50617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}