Man who stole designer watches jailed for three years 

By Natasha Reid 

A 38-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison for stealing seven designer watches worth more than €13,000 from a jeweller in Dublin City Centre. 

The father of two later tried to sell them to another city jeweller, who alerted gardai. 

Paul Bissett of no fixed abode was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, where he pleaded guilty to burglary and criminal damage at Cullen Jewellers on Castle Market in Dublin 2 on 18th November 2023. 

Sergeant Kevin Cassidy told the court that the shop owner was alerted by an alarm around 6.45am that day.

When he arrived at his shop, he found the window had been broken and that the case containing 10 Tag Heuer watches had been opened. 

Seven watches had been taken and he found the other three on the ground.

The seven watches had a value in excess of €13,000, and between €15,000 and €20,000 worth of damage had been done. 

Later that day, Bissett and another man entered Dawson Jewellers, where the owner said they were anxious to sell him some watches.

However, the owner of this shop had already been alerted to the earlier theft at Cullen Jewellers.

He asked the would-be sellers to come back in an hour, and he called the gardaí. 

When they returned to the shop, Bissett co-operated and was arrested.

Some five of the watches were recovered, with a value in excess of €10,000.

They still had their price tags and were resalable. 

The court heard he had 75 previous convictions, including for assault causing harm, and he recently received a four-year sentence for a robbery committed a month after the jewellery heist.

He was on bail at the time of this offence. 

Sergeant Cassidy agreed with the defence that the owner of Dawson Jewellers had described both Bissett and the other man as intoxicated and stoned. 

The court heard that the co-accused was not currently before the courts. 

Bisset’s barrister told the court that his client’s parents had split up when he was four years old, and that his mother had to sell the family home, leading to the family moving to social housing. 

He left school after the Junior Cert and began taking drugs at the age of 15. 

Judge Orla Crowe described the circumstances of the burglary as unusual.

She said that the owner of Dawson Jewellers was to be commended for his acuity. 

“His life seems to have been marred by drugs, getting clean and then relapsing,” she said of Bissett.

“He has been in and out of custody. 

 She said the aggravating circumstances were his previous convictions and that he was on bail at the time. 

 She said the mitigating circumstances included his early guilty plea, although she pointed out that ‘he was caught red-handed with five watches’. 

 She imposed a sentence of three years and backdated it to when he entered his guilty plea.