Irish woman imprisoned for criminal damages at 1.50 euro

Irish courts have jailed a woman for causing criminal damage to a 1.50 € chip pack.

Kathleen McDonagh, 25, opened Pringles in a Tesco in Cork before paying them.

The woman had been banned from the store and told the court that she had opened the chips so the security would be forced to let her pay for it.

Instead, she was sentenced to two months in jail for damaging the product, which could no longer be sold.

The judge learned that Mr. McDonagh had had a series of previous convictions, including a number of robberies or criminal damages.

The damage was caused almost two years ago on December 27, 2016, at the Mahon Point Mall in Cork, near McDonagh's home.

In court, the police said that McDonagh had been banned from the store and that his staff knew him when she took Pringles' tin can and headed to the automatic control zone.

The security personnel asked her to order her to leave the store when she opened the top of the Pringles and opened the seal of aluminum.

An inspector told the court that she had said, "I opened it, so you have to let me pay for it."

"She could not be resold with a loss of € 1.50," the policeman told the judge, adding that although the woman wants to buy chips, "she was not allowed to go to the store. ".

McDonagh's legal representation sought clemency from the court, explaining that she had just got married and that she was pregnant for several months and that she had pleaded guilty.

The judge, however, decided to impose a four-month prison sentence with two months of stay, noting that the accused had deliberately opened the product when he had been asked to leave the premises by security. .

He said that it was difficult to see his actions other than as an "intelligent behavior of Alec".