Con man jailed over probation failure

A CON man who once turned himself in to gardaí after phoning Joe Duffy’s RTÉ Liveline programme was yesterday jailed for 21 months.

Judge Donagh McDonagh at Ennis Circuit Court activated a 21-month suspended sentence of a two-year jail term he had imposed on Frankie Shanley (35), with addresses at Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, and Boyle, Co Roscommon, in November 2008, over Shanley stealing a €22,000 sports car he took for a test drive.

Judge McDonagh jailed Shanley after he failed to engage with the Probation Service following his release from jail in 2009.

After a Garda search over almost two years, Shanley was arrested in a stolen car on March 2nd last. A list of his previous convictions shows Shanley has appeared in courts right across the State over 13 years.

Det Garda Larry Bergin said Shanley had been convicted of a number of offences since receiving the sentence in Clonmel in 2008.

Counsel for Shanley, Lorcan Connolly, said none of Shanley’s previous convictions related to violence. All concerned road traffic and theft. He said a consultant psychiatrist had found Shanley suffered from paranoid delusional disorder. Judge McDonagh said there was “no ray of hope” Shanley would comply with any Probation Service regime and activated the suspended sentence, backdating it to May 4th.