Former Google employee stole laptop and tried to sell it back to colleague

A former Google employee has been given a suspended sentence for trying to sell a stolen laptop back to his colleague.

The laptop was stolen from a work locker at Google's headquarters in Dublin 4. Dariusz Rejniewicz (29) was caught in a sting operation the next day as he tried to sell it back to its owner.

Rejniewicz of Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin but originally from Poland, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to handling stolen property at McDonald's on Grafton Street on January 13th, 2013.

He had also entered a guilty plea to demanding money with menaces on the same occasion but the prosecution withdrew this charge after Judge Mary Ellen Ring pointed out that there was no evidence of threats during the exchange.

Rejniewicz, who now works for a cleaning company after being fired by Google, had been remanded on bail pending sentence when evidence was first heard last November.

Judge Ring considered a probation report before the court on Wednesday which was described as “unfavourable” before she sentenced Rejniewicz to two and half years which she suspended in full.

She warned him that he was “running out of rope” and suspended the sentence on condition that he remains under supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months.

Garda Barry Keegan told prosecuting counsel, Marie Torrens BL, that the laptop's owner noticed it missing at the end of the work day. He was told by a colleague, who is not before the court, that he could have it back in return for €700.

He was then put in touch with Rejniewicz who said it would cost €500. The owner alerted gardaí­ before agreeing to meet Rejniewicz the next day.

Garda Keegan arranged a plan to arrest Rejniewicz once he got a signal from the laptop owner that the exchange was going ahead.

When they met in McDonald’s, the garda moved in and made the arrest.

Defence counsel, Mark Thompson BL, said his client co-operated with gardaí­ on his arrest.

He said that an unnamed colleague of Rejniewicz’s at Google stole the laptop and that his client was a “patsy”.

Rejniewicz has 13 previous convictions, mostly for road traffic offences, but also drugs possession and cultivation of cannabis.