A Dublin drug addict and award winning poet who spent 12 years in jail for attempted murder has been spared another prison sentence for a pharmacy robbery.

Lawyers for Michael Fogarty (50) said he had gone to Tallaght Hospital feeling suicidal, but decided to rob a pharmacy for tablets after being told there would be a 14 hour waiting time.

Garda Vincent Jaffray said that Fogarty had to be taken to hospital for treatment after his arrest, as he had swallowed a large number of the tablets he had robbed.

Fogarty, of Harelawn Avenue, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbing prescription tablets and about €100 cash from Hickey’s Pharmacy, The Square, Tallaght on March 2, 2014.

He has seven previous convictions, including attempted murder in London.

The court heard Fogarty passed a handwritten note on ripped paper to the pharmacy worker that read: “Give me the cash or I will hurt you. Don’t fuck me around. I’m not fucking around.”

Gda Jaffray told John Byrne BL, prosecuting, that Fogarty also had a knife in his trousers waistband.

He was met by a shopping centre security guard as he tried to leave the pharmacy and wrestled to the ground until gardaí arrived.

All of the cash was recovered, but gardaí discovered Fogarty had swallowed a large quantity of the tablets.

When Fogarty resumed his garda interview after treatment at Tallaght Hospital, he admitted he had mental health difficulties and had been roaming the streets prior to the offence.

Sarah-Jane Callaghan BL, defending, submitted to Judge Martin Nolan that her client had won awards at the Listowel Writer’s Festival.

She said he had only begun to engage with proper treatment services and had been suicidal the day of the robbery.

She asked the judge to “take a big chance” on her client.

Judge Nolan said he estimated Fogarty spent 12 years in jail for the attempted murder.

He imposed a two year sentence and suspended it in total for two years.