A man who received a jail sentence for damaging a parked car by scraping it with a gardening hoe has had his custodial term replaced with a fully suspended sentence on appeal.
Judge Christopher Callan at the District Court Appeals Court said he was not convinced that Vincent Hendy (48) has “demonstrated necessary remorse” for the incident but suspended the sentence on the grounds of his family’s medical needs.
Hendy, with an address at East Pier, Howth, was convicted in the District Court of damaging property without lawful excuse by scraping the driver’s door of a vehicle at East Pier, Howth, contrary to section 2(1) of the Criminal Damage Act, 1991.
The case was contested in the District Court but Hendy was convicted and sentenced to six months in custody with one month suspended. He later lodged an appeal against the severity of his sentence.
Garda David Kernan told the court that while working at Howth Garda Station on May 24, 2024, he received a report from the injured party about damage done to his car.
He said that there was a scrape to the driver’s side door, which had been parked at East Pier, Howth.
The garda said that he obtained CCTV showing Hendy passing by the car with a gardening hoe.
Garda Kernan said that the damage cost €450 to repair.
Defence counsel for Hendy, Lydia Daly BL, said that her client accepts responsibility for the incident.
She said that he used to work as a fisherman but now works full time at home as a carer for his wife, who has had two strokes in the past 12 months and had spent time in intensive care.
Judge Christopher Callan said that Hendy should have paid the compensation to the injured party already, as it might go some way to show genuine remorse for what he did.
Despite appealing on severity of sentence only, Hendy told the judge: “I genuinely didn’t realise I had done it, it wasn’t a deliberate act of sabotage”.
Garda Kernan told the judge that it was strongly of his opinion that it was done with intent and that Hendy went out of his way to pass by the car.
Ms Daly said that her client was “accepting it in essence” as this was an appeal on severity.
Judge Callan decided to suspend the six-month sentence in its entirety for a period of two years on the basis of the needs of Hendy’s wife and children.
He said he was “not convinced that he has demonstrated necessary remorse” but that nonetheless Hendy was coming to the appeal on severity only.
The judge said that Hendy is on the record accepting what he did, “notwithstanding” what he said in court.
He made the conditions that Hendy must pay €1,000 in compensation to the member in charge at Raheny Garda Station, complete a course in anger management within one year and that he must not interfere with cars on the East Pier Howth public car park.