Woman fined after stolen flower baskets found in home

A 45-year-woman has been fined €200 after she pleaded guilty to recklessly handling stolen property in a case where a community group put a tracking device into a hanging basket of flowers because of previous baskets going missing.

Mary O’Driscoll, of Brookhill, Ballea Road, Carrigaline in Co Cork, pleaded guilty to being in possession of six flower baskets – each valued at €30 – knowing or being reckless as to whether they were stolen.

A previous sitting of the district court heard that between 29 May and 31 May 2023, six community hanging baskets and flowers were stolen from Inch, Killeagh, Co Cork. They were valued at €180.

Due to other baskets going missing the year before, members of the local community who put up the baskets put an Apple tracker into one of the baskets, which gave the location as being O’Driscoll’s address in Carrigaline.

Gardái obtained a warrant to search her property and found all six baskets and the tracking device at her home.

At Cork District Court today, solicitor Donal Daly told Judge Marian O’Leary that his client – who is the mother of seven children, five of whom have disabilities – had been reckless as to the goods being stolen and was pleading guilty to the charge.

Mr Daly said there was no financial loss and all six baskets had been recovered.

Inspector Brendan McKenna said O’Driscoll had four previous convictions and had signed a Probation Bond three weeks prior to this incident.

Judge O’Leary fined her €200 giving her six months to pay the fine.