An Italian computer consultant who stole eight laptop computers from the Department of Foreign Affairs while working for it has received a four-year suspended sentence.
Andrew Rosino (28), formerly living in Blanchardstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty to stealing the laptops on dates between October 2003 and January 2004.
Garda Deirdre Conway told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Rosino had two previous convictions in England for theft and had been jailed in 1995.
"One wonders what checks are made by the Department of Foreign Affairs," said Judge Frank O'Donnell, who expressed scepticism about many of Rosino's claims in mitigation, at what was the second sentence hearing of the case within a month.
Rosino has been in custody for the thefts since January last. "You have learned your lesson, I hope," Judge O'Donnell said to Rosino, who broke into a smile when the sentence was suspended.
Garda Conway said Rosino had sold seven of the laptops to friends for about €500 each and the eighth on the Internet auction site, e-bay, for £700 to an English man.
The thefts came to light when Rosino's Internet customer telephoned the laptop manufacturer, Dell, to change the warranty on the computer, which was made out to the Department.
Dell customer services then contacted the Department, and the theft was uncovered.
Judge O'Donnell had adjourned the sentence hearing on May 25th to allow the defence time to prove claims made by Rosino that he had been married to an Irish woman for a year before she died in a motor accident outside Milan in 1994.
Judge O'Donnell also asked for confirmation that he had been under psychiatric treatment as he claimed, and requested that definite information be sought on Rosino having been in custody in the UK where he had previously worked.
Rosino's counsel, Mr Kieran Kelly, told Judge O'Donnell that he could not produce a marriage certificate to prove that Rosino had been married to an Irish woman, as he had claimed, but he could provide evidence that Rosino has been claiming widower's tax benefits from the Revenue Commissioners.
"Unless he could have proved that he had been married to an Irish woman, the Revenue Commissioners would not be giving him a widower's tax benefit," Mr Kelly told Judge O'Donnell.
He said, however, that Rosino had not told his side of the family about the marriage.
Judge O'Donnell replied that he found it hard to believe that Rosino had been married and become a widower without his family ever knowing about it.
He also expressed scepticism that he could not provide the court with her name or put it in contact with members of her family here.
Mr Kelly noted that Rosino had denied being imprisoned in England previously for theft. He said there was evidence to confirm that Rosino had indeed been taken into custody in England.
Ms Karen O'Connor, prosecuting, told Judge O'Donnell that while there were fingerprints matching Rosino's on file in Scotland Yard, it did not prove him to have been actually jailed, only that he had a conviction for theft.