A Moroccan who jumped ship in Cork and obtained temporary political asylum pleaded guilty at Tralee District Court yesterday to handling stolen property after handbags were snatched in Killarney.
Insp Barry O'Rourke said Jaquad Khallifi (25), whose address was given as Iveagh Hostel, Bride Street, Dublin, and also care of Leanes Flats, Muckross Road, Killarney, had been found in possession of stolen property in his flat in Killarney.
Mr Patrick Mann, solicitor, said the defendant and a friend had been subjected to savage and brutal treatment in the army of their country and stowed away on a ship to Spain and to Ireland, where the defendant, as a refugee, obtained temporary asylum in the High Court.
He later met a Waterford criminal and did not realise the danger this man was going to get him into. Every item stolen had been found in defendant's flat and returned to the victims. Mr Mann said Khallifi "was duped into being a patsy for the known criminal when in Killarney".
Judge Humphrey Kelleher applied the Probation Act.
