By Claire Henry and Fiona Ferguson
A woman with 194 previous convictions has been jailed for two years for her role as a getaway driver in a crime “spree.”
Pamela Bird (40) of Fisherman’s Wharf, Ringsend, Dublin 4, pleaded guilty to robbery, two counts of attempted robbery and one count of theft on various locations in Dublin on dates between September 29, 2021, and November 3, 2021.
She has 194 previous convictions, which include 114 for theft offences.
At a previous hearing last year, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that this offending was carried out on a joint enterprise basis, which involved Bird’s co-accused entering these premises and Bird driving the co-accused away from the scene.
Detective Garda Darren Feely told Aideen Collard, BL, prosecuting, that on September 29, 2021, at 4.4 pm, a man entered the Daybreak shop in Rochestown, Dún Laoghaire.
The man walked to the counter, then asked for money and said, “This is a robbery”, and produced a knife.
The manager of the shop pressed the panic alarm, and the man fled the scene in a wine-coloured Toyota Corolla with visible number plates and missing hub caps.
Det Gda Feely said CCTV footage captured Bird arriving at a petrol station on November 3, 2021 at 1.20pm.
Her co-accused got out of the car and put €40 worth of fuel into the tank before getting back into the car and driving away without paying.
The court heard that later that day, CCTV footage at the Daybreak Applegreen station captured Bird’s co-accused getting out of her car with a steak knife in his hand.
He walked to the counter of the shop, pushed a shop worker to the side and said, “This is a robbery; give me your money”.
The shop manager pressed the panic button, and the co-accused tried to open the till, but he failed and fled.
He was seen once again getting into a wine-coloured Toyota Corolla.
Prosecuting counsel said the final count relates to a robbery at the Daybreak shop in Monkstown.
The male co-accused entered the shop and repeatedly asked for money.
The till was opened, and cash was taken, along with 400 cigarettes.
Staff in the shop pressed the panic alarm and gardai were alerted. CCTV footage was obtained and showed the man being driven away by Bird.
The court heard that gardai saw the car being driven by Bird and it was stopped.
Bird’s co-accused was found in the back seat of the car changing his clothes.
Gardai found a large amount of cash in his underwear.
Bird and the co-accused were arrested and interviewed.
Bird made admissions during interview, admitting to driving the car and changing the licence plates.
Bird told gardai that the offences were planned and they wanted money to buy drugs.
Det Gda Feely agreed with Kevin Roche BL, defending that this was a “spree” involving a number of offences over a short period of time.
He said Bird was not present in the shops during any of the robberies.
The garda agreed with counsel that Bird was the driver when the car was stopped, and she gave no problems to the gardaí.
The detective added that he had not seen someone as sick from withdrawals since the 1990s and added that the interview had to be stopped on occasion so Bird could get sick.
Mr Roche told the court at a previous hearing last year that his client started using heroin at the age of 15 and had taken up bail to undertake focused and secure rehabilitation care with the Peter McVerry Trust.
He said Bird is drugs-tested on a twice-weekly basis and handed in urine analysis, which was negative for any substances.
He asked the court at the hearing last year to take into account the early guilty plea, that she had a lesser role in the offending, that she made admissions during her garda interview and that she has rehabilitated herself since this offence.
Mr Roche told the court that since the last date Bird had a health scare and as a way of coping had unfortunately suffered a relapse.
The court heard that she has come to garda attention since the last date and is currently in custody.
Judge Elma Sheahan noted the content of a probation report and said that Bird had been given an opportunity to “put her best foot forward” due to the fair evidence of the garda on the last day.
She said Bird had been given the opportunity to engage with the Probation Service which was under significant stress and it was not tolerable that they had to follow her around to try and get her to engage with them when they had so much else to do.
She said the report outlined that Bird engages positively with the service while in custody but her pattern on release is to relapse.
She said that in circumstances where they had sought to engage with her to no avail since last August, the court did not see a role for the service in this case.
Judge Sheahan noted that in these offences Bird had driven a get-away vehicle while her co-accused had robbed or attempted to rob shops.
She noted Bird had a serious history of offending and a significant drug addiction at the time of her arrest.
She noted Bird has made significant efforts to deal with her addiction and other personal circumstances in the past.
She noted the letter explaining why she had relapsed recently.
The judge noted Bird had not been involved in violence and was at a remove from the offending but was a party to the enterprise.
Judge Sheahan set a headline sentence of four year which she reduced to two and a half years taking into account the mitigating circumstance.
She gave credit for six months in custody and imposed a two year sentence to run from today’s date.