A CONVICTED BURGLAR was caught handling a safe stolen from the home of a finalist from the Voice of Ireland TV show, after he dropped it from a third-floor balcony.
The safe was taken from the Co Meath home of Mark Guildea on 5 May, 2014. A number of men had broken into his home and tied up his wife and child before ransacking the house.
Michael Fagan (25) vehemently denied any involvement in the burglary in Ashbourne and he was never charged with any part in it.
Yesterday, Fagan, of Sperrin Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property at a Rathmines flats complex on the same night as the burglary.
Detective Garda Brian McCarthy from Laytown Garda Station in Co Meath told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that a garda stationed in Dublin contacted him on the night after witnessing Fagan dropping the safe.
Fagan’s 51 previous convictions include burglary and assault. In 2015, he was jailed for five years for an offence of attempted robbery, carrying a firearm and making threats in April 2014.
Bullets
McCarthy said that after the safe was dropped a number of items from inside it had scattered, including shotgun cartridges and bullets.
He said there was a lengthy investigation into the burglary. Fagan pleaded guilty to the charge of handling stolen property last December when the charge first came before the court.
Keith Spencer BL, defending, said the accused was a young man without direction and was on the wrong path. He said Fagan had changed for the better since then and wanted to “live a sober life”.
Judge Elma Sheehan adjourned the case to next Friday for sentence.
Last week, at Trim Circuit Criminal Court, a brother of the accused, Dean Fagan (28) of Kildare Park, Crumlin, Dublin and Daryl Smith (25) of Shancastle Lawns, Clondalkin, Dublin were jailed after pleading guilty to carrying out the aggravated burglary on May 5 2014 at Irishtown, Ashbourne.
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