'TikTok' burglar jailed for theft of stag's head and boat engine
A young man who broke into 19 holiday homes in Co Donegal has been jailed for a further year for another series of offences during which he stole a stag's head and a boat engine.
Timmy O'Gara, 23, was jailed for three years recently for the burglaries he committed between April and July of 2023 after watching a TikTok video of young people breaking into vacant homes.
Now he has been jailed for another year after appearing on five further offences under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act.
O'Gara, who had no previous convictions until he began breaking into holiday homes, appeared at Letterkenny District Court for sentencing.
He pleaded guilty to a range of charges including theft of a stag's head from the Cloghan Lodge, between July 24th, 2023, and July 26th, 2023, deceiving the owner of the Phone Box, at Lower Main Street in Letterkenny, out of an iPhone valued at €1,139 as well as stealing a Yamaha 2B outboard engine at Cladnageragh Pier in Kilcar on August 6th, 2024, the property of Arthur McLaughlin.
He also admitted causing hundreds of euros of damage when he broke into two other holiday homes in Glencolmcille.
The court had previously been asked if it could put a figure on O'Gara's trail of destruction and theft, but said it could not.
However, Garda Sergeant Mark Colgan said that €30,000 in damage had been caused to just one of the 19 properties broken into.
The majority of the properties were vacant holiday homes in the Glencolmcille, Killybegs, Kilcar, Carrick, Teelin and Cloghan areas.
A probation report on the accused quoted O’Gara saying that he strongly denied that he intended to damage any of the properties when he entered them.
He broke into the properties out of boredom, curiosity and the influence of a peer group, the probation report heard.
The court was told that O’Gara is now deeply ashamed of what he did and has deep remorse for his victims.
Addressing the new charges, solicitor for the accused, Mr Rory O'Brien, said he could not understand why these charges had not been dealt with as part of O'Gara's overall case.
Mr O'Brien told Judge Ciaran Liddy that he did not understand the logic of the Director of Public Prosecutions in not dealing with these cases as part of his client's "global sentencing."
He said his client had entered an early plea and was now serving his sentence in prison, keeping his head down and has been given a job working in the prison kitchen.
He added his client's release date is 2028, that he was remorseful for all his crimes and that he has "learned a very hard lesson" as a man who had no previous convictions.
He again stressed he could not understand why O'Gara had not had these charges dealt with as part of his overall case and pleaded with Judge Liddy to be as lenient as possible.
Judge Liddy sentenced O'Gara to one year in prison for the theft of the iPhone and a further year for the theft of the boat engine with all sentences to run concurrently with sentencing to begin immediately.
