A taxi driver who used €212,000 he defrauded from a money- lending company to repay other clients' debts has been given the Probation Act by Judge Bryan McMahon to prevent him losing his licence.
Seamus O'Connor (44) of Orwell Park Glade, Templeogue, took the €212,000 from the Cork-based moneylenders, Henry Michael Ltd, by using bogus application forms. He was told last Monday by Judge McMahon at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that he would get a two-month suspended sentence.
However, Judge McMahon then adjourned the case for some days so that he could establish how to prevent O'Connor from losing his taxi licence because he said he didn't want him to be deprived of a livelihood.
Judge McMahon told O'Connor yesterday he had decided to apply the Probation Act because he didn't want him to have a conviction which would mean him losing his taxi licence.
Det Sgt Pascal Walsh of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation earlier told Mr Paul Greene, prosecuting, that O'Connor was employed as a collector by Henry Michael Ltd, of Mayfield Business Park, Cork, and became "fed up" chasing people for outstanding debts due to the company.
He used the money he gained by submitting 300 bogus loan applications to pay back clients' loans but after being found out, he sold his mother-in-law's house and repaid €182,500 to the company, though this was €175,000 more than the company's actual loss.
Det Sgt Walsh said O'Connor basically was "robbing Peter to pay Paul" and the company's loss was only an estimated €7,500 in commission O'Connor received on the bogus loans.
"I am gobsmacked. Am I missing something?" Judge McMahon asked defence counsel Shane P Murray, who confirmed that O'Connor had been advised by a previous legal team to pay the company €182,500 rather than face a threatened civil action by Henry Michael Ltd.
Judge McMahon said he couldn't understand why O'Connor did this since it was accepted by gardaí that the company was only at a loss of €7,500.
O'Connor pleaded guilty to five sample charges of forging loan application forms.