Woman's handbag snatched by e-scooter rider in late night mugging

A Mullingar woman coming home from a night out had her handbag snatched by a mugger riding by on an e-scooter.

The incident occurred in the Grand Parade area at around 2am on Sunday July 2. The e-scooter rider made off in the direction of the Green Bridge leaving the victim unhurt but shaken.

Cllr Ken Glynn raised the incident at last Monday's, July 10, meeting of the Westmeath Joint Policing Committee. The Fianna Fail man also referred to a number of recent muggings in the Clonmore area close to the Fire Station and an attack on a young person in the town centre who was beaten up “for no good reason”.

Cllr Glynn called for a greater garda presence in the town as it would deter people from carrying out crimes or engaging in anti-social behaviour.

“The last thing we would want is people being afraid to walk around the town,” he said.

Cllr Mick Dollard also spoke about the need for a greater garda presence on Mullingar's streets.

He told the meeting that he recently spent six hours fundraising for charity outside the post office on Dominick Street and “not once did I see a garda”.

“It was pension day on Friday and there were lots of young people people flying around on scooters.”

Cllr Dollard also called for increase community policing in housing estates to “build up rapport with residents associations

Superintendent David Nolan said that some of the incidents mentioned by Cllr Glynn were under active investigation and he was limited in what he could say.

He added that it is important that the public always reports crimes and that he wanted to reassure people that Mullingar and Westmeath are “very safe” places to live when you compare local crime statistics to other parts of the country.

He also agreed that garda “visibility is extremely important”.