A bus driver who mutilated himself and claimed disability benefit having made a false report to gardai alleging he had been robbed has had his sentence deferred by Judge Elizabeth Dunne.
Alan Campbell (25), of St Cianan's Villas, Duleek, Co Meath, is to pay £3,000 compensation before January 12th. If he does, Judge Dunne will impose a suspended sentence.
Campbell pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making a false report to gardai on April 18th, 1998, while driving the Number 83 bus in Crumlin, Dublin. He has no previous convictions.
Garda Ronan Lafferty said Campbell phoned gardai at 10 p.m. on April 18th, 1998, claiming to have been assaulted, attacked with a knife and robbed of £1.50. He told Mr Conor Devally, prosecuting, that they investigated and found Campbell had cut and reopened an old hand wound with a blade and thrown the blade on the floor of the bus.
A week prior to the incident Campbell had been involved in a minor collision with a car while driving another route.
Campbell reported sick for three months after the alleged robbery and received £3,436 in disability benefits under the Bus Atha Cliath compensation scheme. He had also received £1,135 social welfare benefits, claiming some £57 per week.
Garda Lafferty said Campbell had made the false report out of fear of losing his job. He had been on probation as a driver and had been working with Bus Atha Cliath for only three weeks. Campbell maintained his deception while he received the benefits. It later proved "too much" for him and he confessed he had given a false statement.
Mr Luigi Rea, defending, said that at the time of the incident his client had been very depressed due to deaths in his family. It was not a premeditated incident but a foolhardy response to a road accident and a case of his client trying to keep his job.