Woman jailed for two years and nine months for laundrette robbery

By Eimear Dodd

A woman who stole €400 from a laundrette has been jailed for two years and nine months.

Ennis Dunne (47), with a former address at North Circular Road, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to robbery at a laundrette on the South Circular Road on October 24, 2025.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard evidence that Dunne went into the laundrette and was using the machines for about an hour.

The investigating garda told Caroline Cummings BL, prosecuting, that Dunne approached the till and started asking questions of the staff member, when there were no other customers on the premises.

She asked about her sister’s washing, which she claimed had been left on the premises.

When the staff member went to check, Dunne went to the till area several times.

The staff member told her to stand back.

Dunne then tried to take the staff member’s iPhone from her back pocket.

She took something out and tried to push it into the face of the staff member, who thought it might be a syringe and felt scared.

She then felt something sharp pushed into her back, and tried to push Dunne back to protect herself.

Her iPhone fell to the ground, and Dunne went to the till.

The staff member then grabbed her phone and ran out of the shop.

Dunne took €410 from the till, then ran off, leaving behind a bag and other items.

She was identified from CCTV, which was played to the court.

When interviewed by gardai, Dunne said she had memory lapses, was taking crack cocaine and tablets and that her drug habit was costing around €200 a day.

Dunne accepted it was her on the CCTV footage, but denied any knowledge of what the weapon was.

She also agreed that it would have caused fear to the staff member, expressed hope that the woman could recover and apologised.

She accepted producing a sharp object, threatening the worker, stealing the money and apologised.

A victim impact statement was handed to the court and not read aloud.

Ms Cummings told the court that the incident had a profound effect on the staff member, who has since left Ireland and returned to her home country.

Dunne has 77 previous convictions, including 11 for robbery and two for attempted robbery.

The investigating garda agreed with Emmet Nolan BL, defending, that his client has been in custody since her arrest, entered an early guilty plea and was heavily intoxicated on illicit substances at the time.

It was further accepted that Dunne told gardai she was being intimidated for money at the time to repay her debts.

Mr Nolan told the court his client has an “appalling record” and outlined a difficult background.

Dunne is on methadone maintenance and has significant physical and mental health issues.

She intends to leave Dublin following her release from custody and move to another part of the country.

Mr Nolan said his client is ashamed and embarrassed by her behaviour.

Judge Martin Nolan noted that Dunne was “desperate for money” on the day and that her behaviour “terrified” the injured party, who found the physical confrontation “traumatic”.

He said this was a serious robbery, as it involved some pushing and shoving, but the violence was at the lower end of the scale.

He said Dunne has a “fairly serious record of conviction” and noted her background, health issues and ambitions to rehabilitate.

Judge Nolan imposed a sentence of two years and nine months, backdated to when Dunne went into custody in October 2025.