Garden intruder ‘caused hardship’ for victims

A father of two twice caught intruding in people’s gardens caused “fear and hardship” for the residents, a judge has said.

Michael Foley (49) was separately found with a kitchen knife in his pocket while stumbling around intoxicated and “foaming at the mouth” on a city street.

Judge Treasa Kelly gave him a two-month suspended sentence.

Foley, with an address at a Dublin city hostel, pleaded guilty to trespassing, interfering with cars, public intoxication and possession of a weapon.

Dublin District Court heard that on November 11, 2021, Foley was arrested trespassing in the back garden of a house at Gracepark Road, Drumcondra, after climbing a boundary wall.

Also that day, he was seen on CCTV walking through a front gate at a house at Charlemont Road and “looking around” at the front door.

Foley was arrested for trying to break into vehicles at Iona Villas, Dublin 9, on September 1, 2022. He was stumbling, slurring his words, not making any sense and told gardaí he had taken a quantity of tablets.

He was found in possession of a small kitchen knife when gardaí searched him after finding him stumbling from side to side and foaming at the mouth at Malahide Road, Fairview on March 5.

The accused had 171 previous convictions. Foley had an “extremely poor history” with a chronic drug addiction but was now “turning his life around”, his solicitor Niall O’Connor said.

He was now working parttime, was drug-free and living a law-abiding life.

The incident this year was “a slip” and appeared to be a one-off.