Tag Archives: Derek Smart

ABOUT 1,400 students and their families in Clare have a nervous week ahead, as they await the Leaving Cert results, which will be released on Wednesday. This year, 664 girls and 729 boys were registered to sit their final State exams in June, while a further 31 females and 36 males were registered for the Leaving Cert Applied. This week, they will find out how they got on. Gardaí in Clare are encouraging young people to enjoy themselves but to behave responsibly in their celebrations. “People have put a lot of hard work into getting these results and we are here to facilitate them having a good and safe time. There is a responsibility on people to ensure they don’t over-do it and get over-enthusiastic and drink too much because, if that happens, we will have to step in and may have to arrest them. Leaving Cert results are the start of a whole new chapter in people’s lives and …

THE issuing of adult cautions is becoming more prevalent in recent times, something gardaí have attributed to the current economic climate. At a meeting of the county’s Joint Policing Committee Superintendent Derek Smart, of Ennis Garda District, outlined to the committee that the number of theft and theft-related offences had increased by three instances, bringing the total to 858. Noting in the breakdown of these figures that thefts from shops accounted for 230 of these crimes, Councillor John Crowe asked the Superintendent to clarify if these would have resulted in successful prosecutions. Superintendent Smart said, “The vast majority of them would end up in convictions. Most shops have good CCTVs, and we would also make use of the adult caution in the case of a first time offence, which keeps the matter out of the courts. We are seeing this being used a lot more in the current economic times”. After the meeting, Superintendent Smart told The Clare Champion, “It …