Ciocolata Munteanu, a 25-year-old Irish woman who was deported from the US, has paid the fines in Co Cork for outstanding theft charges from before she left Ireland.

Munteanu, who now has an address in Cork City, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California, where she and her family had been living for almost six years.

After spending two months in ICE detention, the Irish-born mother of one was flown back to Ireland in March. Upon her arrival, she was met by gardaí on the tarmac at Dublin Airport and taken into custody on Irish warrants from before she left for the US.

Munteanu was charged in November 2018 with stealing two hams valued at €80 in Cork, and she was later charged in January 2019 with stealing €264 worth of cosmetics from a Boots outlet in Blackpool, Cork.

On March 25, the day after she returned to Ireland, Munteanu appeared in Cork District Court to face the charges. Solicitor Dennis Healy said his client would enter a guilty plea and asked for a week for her to get the money together.

There was no objection to Munteanu's being remanded on bail on conditions, including signing daily at Bridewell Garda Station and not leaving the jurisdiction.

However, during the next hearing at Cork District Court - to which Munteanu brought a bank draft for the compensation - Judge Mary Dorgan declined to finalize the case as she said that Munteanu was smiling and chewing gum as her solicitor was speaking on her behalf.

“In here, we look for respect," Judge Dorgan said in court, according to EchoLive.ie, "She can come back on April 16."

The next hearing was further delayed when Munteanu's solicitor was unable to attend.

The case was finalized on Thursday, where Munteanu paid the €380 compensation and was handed a €200 fine, €100 for each theft.

Earlier this month, before her case was finalized, Ciocolata told the Irish Independent about her circumstances.

“I wasn’t detained in the US over the charges here,” Ciocolata told the Irish publication.

“It was because my visa had expired.

“And nowadays in the US, they just want to deport everybody.

“So I got stopped on the street and asked where I was from. When I said Ireland, they looked up my name, and it said that my visa was expired.

“They kept me there for a while and then they sent me back here to Ireland, where I had these warrants from when I was just 18.

“And, yeah, I was surprised at that because I was just 18 when that happened, basically still a child.

“It’s stupid but it happened. Now I’m older, I’m OK, and I’m not doing anything like that anymore.”

Ciocolata further told the Irish Independent: “[In the US,] I was working and I had my nail salon. But they (ICE) just don’t care about any of that.

“They take people who are married to Americans, they take people who have businesses and documents… they still don’t care.

“I was brought to an ICE detention centre, and I was asked when I got there whether I wanted to fight the case.

“I said I didn’t, that I just wanted to go home because there are people fighting their cases and they’re being kept there six and seven months and are still being sent home.

“Some of the other people in there had good papers, but I didn’t … my visa was out.

“And I didn’t have documents, I only had my business card.”

She added: “They didn’t believe me that I was Irish. And when I tried to explain it to them, they didn’t want to know.

“They wanted to send me to a different country, to Romania, because my mum and dad are from Romania.

“I was telling them that I was born here (in Ireland) and that my passport had gotten lost.

“I called my embassy and I told them what was happening. And the embassy called them and told them but they didn’t listen.

“They held me for two months because I wouldn’t sign the piece of paper that would have allowed them to deport me to Romania.

“I said I wouldn’t sign. And eventually they did send me home.”

Asked what she would say to any Irish people thinking about emigrating to the US and overstaying their visas, Ciocolata told the Irish Independent: “Don’t. It’s better here.

“Because of Trump… everybody is just getting deported and deported and kept for months in custody.

“Americans are so racist. They are so racist. They are really smart but they are stupid as well.”