Man Jailed For 14 Years For Stealing Bag For Life After Pressing ‘I’m Using My Own Bag’ At Self-Service Checkout

A DUBLIN CIRCUIT court was the scene today for a landmark sentencing which saw Ballinteer man Sean Hughes receive 14 years for what Judge Elaine Downes described as ‘unforgivable, light-fingered behaviour’.

Hughes, who tearfully admitted to his crime on the witness stand, did on the 13th of July this year pressed the ‘I have my own bag’ button on a self-service scanner at a leading supermarket despite the fact the bag in question was one on sale near the till point.

“I just thought ‘hey, a freebie for the little guy’. My mate told me once how he didn’t weigh bananas properly once and he got like three free bananas, it was a rush of blood to the head, a silly moment I regret,” Hughes told the court to little sympathy for Judge Downes.

Hughes tried to offer information about his friend who he alleges also once labeled a chocolate croissant as a cheaper scone on another visit to the self-scan but the 32-year-old’s attempt to become a tell-tale saw him receive no mercy.

“The defendant through his actions has marked himself out a dishonest person with contempt for the rules the rest of us abide, have we all found ourselves at the till at one point and realised ‘fuck sake, I’m after leaving the bags for life in the car’? Yes of course, but that doesn’t give us the right to trampled on the fragile civility of life,” expounded Judge Downes.

“A bag for life; it should be repaid with a whole life sentence but I am constrained by sentencing guidelines and so can only sentence you to 14 years in prison, consider yourself lucky,” concluded the judge as a crying Hughes was carried from the court.

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