Student pushed woman on West Street during the Fleadh

A DkIT student made test purchases online using visa debit card details which were noted down while the owner was sitting an exam at the college, Dundalk district court heard last week.

Jibola Akanni (22) of St. Laurence’s Drive, Drogheda admitted handling stolen property on May 10th 2018, and making a donation to men’s cancer charity Movember Foundation and buying a pair of Gucci flip flops.

The court heard the owner of the AIB visa debit card - who had left her belongings outside an exam hall in

DkIT, discovered that €10 was missing from her purse.

It was subsequently established that six online transaction attempts were made - two of which were successful. CCTV showed four males near where the student had been sitting.

In a separate prosecution for using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, the court heard that during the Fleadh in Drogheda last summer, the defendant had pushed a woman who was standing on a footpath on West Street on August 13th last and was asked to leave the area.

The court also heard Mr. Akanni - who had seven previous convictions, had failed to attend court in Drogheda last November and at the CCJ in Dublin nearly six weeks later, as he had saved the court dates in his phone which had been seized by gardaí

The Defence barrister said here had been a lot of bustling on the streets of Drogheda during the Fleadh, and claimed it was not a shove and his client had intended to get past the woman.

He added Mr. Akanni was not the individual who took the items from the handbag and had been persuaded by another individual to make the test purchases.

The court heard the defendant - who is studying Business and Technology and hopes to re-sit exams in August which he had failed, is currently serving a six month jail term that was imposed on Monday.

Judge Eirinn McKiernan imposed a four month sentence for the handling stolen property offence backdated to January 31st when the defendant went into custody.