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Mugshots released of Co Mayo couple jailed for multiple ‘dine and dash’ offences

Ann and Bernard McDonagh were jailed after a judge told them their actions had been motivated by ‘pure and utter greed’

Today at 09:31

These are the police mugshots of the Irish married couple who have been jailed in the UK for multiple ‘dine and dash’ offences in south Wales.

Bernard McDonagh (41), and wife Ann (39), with addresses in Sandfields, Port Talbot, hit the headlines in the UK this week after they admitted to a spree of ‘dine and dash’ thefts in south Wales where they live.

Both Bernard and Ann hail from Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, where his father Bernard ‘The Foal’ McDonagh is a well-known TikTok character

Swansea Crown Court heard the pair, who used more than 40 aliases and 18 dates of birth between them, dishonestly obtained food and drink at four restaurants and one takeaway in the south Wales area, with the unpaid bills totalling £1,168.10.

The couple, who pleaded guilty to five joint charges of fraud, were arrested after images of their scam were posted on social media.

Ann McDonagh also admitted four counts of shoplifting, including at designer store Tommy Hilfiger, taking items worth £1,017.60.This week, Ann McDonagh was sentenced to 12 months in prison and Bernard McDonagh to eight months, after a judge told them their actions had been motivated by “pure and utter greed”.

Judge Paul Thomas told them: “From the autumn of last year to spring of this year, you two set out on a deliberate course of sustained dishonesty.

“You would go to restaurants with your own family. You would have food and drink served to you to the value of hundreds of pounds and then you would cynically and brazenly leave without paying.

“You would order the most expensive items on the menu such as steaks in the full knowledge that you had no intention whatsoever of paying for them.”

The judge said that using children to wait in the restaurants, who would then run off, while pretending to go to a cashpoint was “ruthlessly exploitative”.At Swansea Crown Court this week, Giles Hayes representing Bernard McDonagh, described the father-of-six as “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” by his actions and said his client had brought money with him to court in order to pay it back.

Andrew Evans, representing Ann McDonagh, said she had suffered family bereavements and may have carried out the frauds “to try to make herself feel better”.

However, Judge Paul Thomas told the couple: “You were not going to these places to feed you and your family, it was criminality for criminality’s sake – to see if you could get away with it.

“I have no doubt, apart from the greed element, you had got a buzz out of what you were able to get away with on a regular basis.”

The judge added that the behaviour of the family, from the traveller community, would “fuel and reinforce” negative stereotypes.