Man stole over €1,300 worth of tiles from Bagenalstown business, Carlow court heard
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A MAN has pleaded guilty to using an allegedly fraudulent card to purchase €1,331 worth of tiles on his employer’s instructions in a case a judge described as “bizarre” with “an awful lot of the jigsaw missing”.
Dylan Howard (26), with an address of Premier Square, Finglas Road, Dublin, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft contrary to section 4 and one count contrary to section 13(1) of the at a recent sitting of Carlow District Court.
The court heard that in December 2024, Garda Shorthall took a statement of complaint from Bagenalstown Tiles, whose owners outlined that on 5 and 6 December 2024 Mr Howard had purchased tiles on four separate occasions to a total value of €1,331. Four chargebacks were subsequently made by the card companies.
They provided gardaí with the vehicle registration and Mr Howard was identified through his phone number and car. He was co-operative with gardaí and made admissions during interview.
Defence solicitor Alex Rafter told the court that his client had sought to gather the €1,331; however, he did not have it with him and explained that his brother is currently very unwell in hospital suffering from a “brain aneurysm or something to that effect”.
Judge Geraldine Carthy told Mr Rafter that if he was asking for more time to be able to pay the money, the answer was “no” and outlined that the defendant had entered a guilty plea on 14 May 2025 and was remanded on continuing bail until July 2025, when the money was due to be paid back.
Mr Howard failed to appear in court on that day and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest, which was executed in Blanchardstown last week.
Mr Rafter told the court that this was a “rather unusual” case and explained that, at the time of the offences, Mr Howard was working as an apprentice tiler for a company in Dublin, which had instructed him to obtain the tiles.
Mr Rafter submitted that Mr Howard’s culpability was minimised as he had been acting on his employer’s instructions; however, he said that where his culpability did come into this was that he had failed to verify the authenticity of the card used.
The court heard that Mr Howard, who has nine previous convictions, none of which are for theft, no longer works for the company and he did not approve of his employer’s business practices.
Mr Rafter said that his client has a two-year-old child and is the main breadwinner in the house, explaining that his mother was homeless for a period of time. Mr Rafter added that Mr Howard is no longer working as an apprentice tiler and is currently employed as a full-time bus driver.
“It is quite a bizarre factual matrix,” said Mr Rafter, but noted that his client did make an early guilty plea after a view of the disclosure evidence.
“It is all bizarre,” agreed Judge Carthy, adding that there was an “awful lot of this jigsaw missing”.
Mr Rafter said that his client had that morning requested documentation showing that his brother was unwell in July, with Mr Rafter admitting “it was a bit late in the day for that”.
Judge Carthy ordered a probation report, saying she “would not be satisfied to sentence him without one” and adjourned the matter until 10 June, remanding Mr Howard on continuing bail.
The judge also questioned a legal aid application made on Mr Howard’s behalf, noting his full-time employment, and requested a statement of means.
