Captain of GAA team stole from teammates to cover drug debts
THE captain of a GAA team rummaged through the belongings of his own team mates at training and made off with two iPhones worth €900 to pay for drug debts, a court has heard.
At Ennis District Court yesterday, captain of Clarecastle GAA football team Barry Guinnane (32) of Cluain Ard, Clarehill, Clarecastle, pleaded guilty to the opportunistic thefts in April of this year at the club.
The club has a strong hurling tradition and boasts double All-Ireland winning captain Anthony Daly, along with Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin and Fergie Tuohy as former stalwarts.
In the case before court yesterday, solicitor for Mr Guinnane, John Casey, said drugs are his client’s problem and he smoked some weed and took some Xanax tablets before attending training on April 25 of this year.
Insp Tom Kennedy told the court that after 30 minutes training on the night, Mr Guinnane told his coach he was feeling unwell and left the train- ing pitch. Mr Guinnane then returned to the changing room where he rummaged through the belongings of five or six team mates and stole an iPhone 6 worth €500 from Darragh Holland and another iPhone from Colin Brigdale.
Insp Kennedy told the court that gardaí were alerted after the players returned to the changing room and found their iPhones stolen.
He said that gardaí tracked down Mr Guinnane at his home and recovered the phones.
Insp Kennedy also said Mr Guinnane “was forthcoming about what happened, was sorry that he did it and agreed he shouldn’t have done and that it was the wrong thing to do”.
Insp Kennedy said Mr Guinnane was motivated to steal the phones to get some cash. Judge Patrick Durcan adjourned the case for a pre-sentence Probation Report and told Mr Guinnane “you face the biggest match of your life now”.
Impact
Mr Casey said that Mr Guinnane took the phones to pay off drug debts. He said: “Mr Guinnane is from Clarecastle. He is not back with the team since. It has had a huge impact on him in a small local village.”
Judge Durcan said if Mr Guinnane deals satisfactorily with the Probation Service, he would impose a fine of €250 on each of the two charges. Judge Durcan told Mr Guinnane: “You have a lot going for you. You have a problem and I don’t want to see you having a criminal record.” Mr Guinnane was remanded on bail to October 4.