A FORMER garda faces up to 10 years in prison for stealing thousands of euro from his colleagues and from an 82-year-old woman.
David Foran (29) responded to a burglary at the elderly woman’s home and found she had hidden nearly €2,000 in her bedroom. He later returned to steal the cash. He also collected money from his Garda colleagues to organise events which he then used to pay his own debts.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Foran was nearly half a million euro in debt because of a house he had built with his new wife. He had been dismissed from the Garda and his marriage had ended.
After hearing the evidence, Judge Yvonne Murphy adjourned the matter until January but warned she was “making no promises”. She called it an unsophisticated crime but noted he had repaid all the stolen money.
She ordered a probation and psychiatric report to be prepared on Foran and remanded him on continuing bail.
Foran, Kinsale, Cork, formerly stationed at Fitzgibbon Street Garda station, Dublin, pleaded guilty to the theft of property worth €1,950 from the woman in Phibsboro between October 10th and 17th, 2009.
He further pleaded to four counts of stealing money collected from his colleagues and one count of using a false instrument at Jurys Hotel, Limerick, all in October and November 2009.
Det Insp Francis Sweeney told Michael Bowman, prosecuting, that Foran became a garda in 2007 and was stationed at Fitzgibbon Street Garda station when he responded to a burglary at the home of the elderly woman.
Burglars had broken into the sheltered housing where she lived but had left without taking anything. When Garda Foran arrived with a colleague, the woman showed them the pillow cases where she kept her money.
She received a pension from An Post where she had worked all her life and kept the money at home as she did not trust banks. The woman left for Cork the next day for a week, during which time Foran returned. He gained access by telling the management he was continuing his investigation. While he was there he took the money.
He later claimed to gardaí he had returned a second time to replace the money but as he was doing so, his mother-in-law phoned to tell him a letter had arrived looking for payment for his wedding rings.
She said if he did not repay it he would lose his wife so he left without replacing the cash.
When the woman discovered the money was missing, she phoned gardaí who began an investigation. The investigating garda then passed the case to Garda Foran who said he would “take care of it”. However, he never contacted the woman again.
The court heard how Foran organised a number of collections for social events for Garda colleagues, including thousands for a Christmas party in Jurys Hotel in Limerick. He collected €13,030 for the event but used this to pay his debts instead.
When he had to make part-payment for the hotel after the event, he used a credit card number belonging to a colleague along with a forged letter of authorisation on Garda-headed note paper.
Other incidents of theft from colleagues included a collection for a garda who was leaving, a collection for a trip to Anfield for a football match and money collected for a Christmas party.
An investigation was begun after the Jurys incident when his colleague noticed the money missing on his credit card.
As he started his shift on December 3rd, 2009, Foran was arrested. As he sat in the back of the Garda car, he confessed to stealing from the elderly woman. He was dismissed from the force soon afterwards.
Ronan Munro, defending, said Foran made full admissions in interview and wrote letters of apologies to his victims.
He told gardaí he owed nearly half a million euro including a €370,000 mortgage, as well as various debts to credit unions and tradesmen. He said his father-in- law had told him at one point to “go away and kill himself” and he later attempted to take his life.
On one occasion a plumber had rung him demanding money and threatened to “break his face”.
Only €23 remained in Foran’s take-home pay after weekly debt repayments were deducted. Mr Munro said his client’s marriage broke down in June 2010 because of the financial strain and the home had been repossessed. He has since received treatment for depression. Foran wept throughout the hearing.
In a letter of apology he stated: “I will forever regret disgracing my unit and I’m forever sorry.”