O'Brien's fantasy life of bling ends in custody

The party was over for Breifne O’Brien a long time before yesterday’s handing down of a seven-year jail sentence for theft and deception. It has been six years since the classic pyramid scheme he had operated for at least a decade finally collapsed.

Chief among his many indulgences was the fantasy that he would be able to pay everybody back. He couldn’t, and instead he caused waves of collateral damage for his victims, their families, and for his own family.

At the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, he was subdued as he peered up at the judge and the barristers through his glasses.

Once his guilty plea was entered in June, he and his legal team accepted he would receive a custodial sentence. The maximum possible, they knew, was 10 years. Judge Patricia Ryan’s decision could not have been a surprise.

Therapy

At his sentence hearing in July and again yesterday, his counsel concentrated on assuring the court that O’Brien was co-operating, as best he could, with the recovery of assets. The message was it was still possible the injured parties might get something back, and that he was full of sorrow and remorse.

A psychologists’ report submitted in mitigation indicated as much. In 2009, as the full extent of his fraud was under investigation, he received therapy from the Forest Healthcare clinic in Co Wicklow. That encouraged him to acknowledge the ways in which he had wronged his friends.

Compared to the flushed, flash-photography pictures taken at Celtic Tiger black-tie parties, O’Brien appeared drawn, his hair greyer and thinner. He had the deflated air of a man who had been through many sessions in court.

But in his dark suit, gold cufflinks and white shirt, it was not impossible to imagine him as a one-time persuasive salesman able to convince others that he was adept at “flipping on” properties.

The truth was that he was a conman and his promises, like the investment schemes he proposed, were bogus.