THE Dublin man who spent five nights in custody in a case of mistaken identity is to sue the State.
Mr Eric Monaghan, of Finglas, was arrested on Friday night and released only yesterday, when the State accepted in the High Court that it had made an error.
He said last night that this was the second time he had been jailed after someone else arrested by the Garda gave his name and address.
Mr Monaghan was arrested last Friday and spent the night in custody in the Bridewell Garda station in Dublin and a further four nights in Mountjoy Prison. During most of his time in jail he shared a cell with six other prisoners.
The Garda Press Office would not comment.
Mr Monaghan said he would be seeking compensation for wrongful imprisonment. He said that after his release by the High Court yesterday "three barristers gave me their numbers and said `ring me afterwards if you want to sue the State'."
Mr Monaghan said he was returning home from a pub on Friday night when a Garda van drew alongside. He was handcuffed and "they flung me in the van". The gardai would not tell him why he had been arrested, he said. "I was trying to tell them that someone gave my name and they said, `there's a warrant and that's it'."
At his home in Finglas, Mr Monaghan said his name and address were given by one of two people charged with an offence, which he thought was a robbery. The name and address of an innocent neighbour was given by the other of the two men charged. He met the neighbour recently and he thought his problem had been "sorted out", he said.
Mr Monaghan said that before his arrest he had told a garda he was not involved in the offence and was told not to worry about it.
He said he was "quite well known" in the area and this might explain why his name and address would be used by other people. This had happened twice before. In one instance, he wrongly received notice of a fine for non payment of a bus fare. In 1994, he was jailed for two weeks over a stolen motorcycle. He said he was not involved in that offence, but he had not sought compensation. He acknowledged that he had once received 12 months probation for supply of cannabis.
Mr Monaghan said no one connected with the Garda or the State had apologised to him over the current case.