Man who kept the death of his neighbour secret as he stole £11k using her bank card to be sentenced

A MAN who admitted preventing the lawful burial of his elderly neighbour, who he discovered dead in her west Belfast home, won’t be facing a trial for stealing a second bank card from her burgled flat.

Robert Sharkey (24), originally of Larkspur Rise in the city, is due to be sentenced next month on a total of 11 charges.

These include using one of Marie Conlon’s debit cards to buy nearly £6,000 worth of pizzas.

Yesterday prosecution lawyer Peter Magill successfully applied to Belfast Crown Court Judge Geoffrey Miller QC for the re- maining charge of the burglary and theft of a Bank of Ireland debit card from her flat to remain on the books.

The remains of Ms Conlon (68) were discovered in the bedroom of her flat last October. Sharkey, who at the time of the discovery was a neighbour, was arrested and charged with preventing the lawful burial of a corpse on dates between August 2015 and October 2017.

Earlier this month Sharkey, now with an address at Grays Hill, Bangor, admitted preventing her lawful burial, breaking into her home and taking batteries, tools, a coffee mug, and stealing £50 in cash, and a First Trust debit card.

Sharkey outside Belfast Crown Court

He also entered guilty pleas to six separate counts of fraud by false representation by using her First Trust bank card without authority to buy food totalling £5,988.39 from Domino’s Pizza from October 2015 to 2017, buying £3,279.80 worth of goods from Sainsbury’s from July 2016 to October 2017, and purchasing mobile phone credit from O2 Ltd amounting to £1,030 from March 2016 to October 2017.

Sharkey also admitted using the card to pay Power NI £285, as well as payments to the Department of Finance’s Land and Property Service. He made a payment to the department of £573.83 in September 2016, with £586.20 paid the following September.