A 23-year-old Ballinrobe woman spent over €2,795 on her friend’s Laser card, last week’s sitting of Castlebar District Court heard. After borrowing the card to pay an electricity bill, she copied the details, which she then used to pay for transactions without her friend’s permission.
Isabelle Hawkshaw of 15 Hazel Court, Ballinrobe, was described as ‘abusing’ her friendship with Ms Marie Mellett by making 44 transactions using the card details over the course of eight months.
Defence solicitor Ronan Murphy told Judge Denis McLoughlin that his client had been in dire financial straits when the then 21-year-old approached Ms Mellett with a view to borrowing the money.
Mr Murphy said the accused had taken advantage of Ms Melletts’s generosity and support at a time of desperation when she was getting little support from home.
Mr Murphy said Hawkshaw had become pregnant while studying industrial design in Sligo IT, and her relationship with her family had been compromised after she concealed it from her parents. Most of the amounts which Ms Hawkshaw extracted from Ms Mellett were small, he added.
Judge McLoughlin was told that Ms Hawkshaw’s relationship with her family had now improved significantly and as a result she had moved back to Ballinrobe. Her parents were also in court to support her.
Mr Murphy added that Hawkshaw had gained a place on a nursing course at NUI Galway, and that she had deferred it until next year so that she could save the money to pay back Ms Mellett in full. Hawkshaw then handed the sum of €2,300 in to the court as part of this repayment. Mr Murphy asked the judge to consider a suspended sentence if jail was being considered.
Judge McLoughlin considered the details of the case and he said a number of factors encouraged him to be lenient. He acknowledged that Hawkshaw pleaded guilty at the first opportunity; that she was of previous good character; and that she had made a big effort to pay back the money.
He ordered that a probation report be completed on the defendant and he indicated that if the report was favourable he would be willing to apply the Probation Act. The case was adjourned until March 7 next.
