A BUSINESSMAN has been remanded in custody for sentence after he was found guilty by a jury of handling stolen mobile telephones. Francis Hanley, of Callery House, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kieran O'Connor next Friday.
Hanley was convicted unanimously by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of handling three mobile phones at Callery House on July 4th, 1995, knowing them to have been stolen. The jury also found him guilty by a 10-2 majority of handling a stolen CD player.
Det Insp Eamonn O'Reilly told Mr, Maurice Gaffney SC, prosecuting, that the stolen goods were found at Callery House during a Garda search on July 4th, 1995. Three stolen mobile phones were found in Hanley's briefcase.
Hanley told the court he was mystified how stolen mobile phones and a CD player discovered by gardai came to be on his property. The Garda evidence was not correct, he alleged.
Replying to his counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC, he said Garda evidence of finding three stolen phones in his briefcase was incorrect. The briefcase zippers were broken and he had one of his own phones which was not working properly in it.
Gardai removed this and a second phone from the briefcase and confiscated a third he took from his back pocket. He had not seen his two phones since and two others had been produced in their place to the court.
He said that a few weeks after the Garda raid he met a man called "Brian Gibson". This "Mr Gibson" said he had left the phones in Callery House and was sorry he had not moved them before gardai arrived.
He said he had tried to get "Mr Gibson" to go to the District Court to explain this but he was unco operative. He agreed with Mr Gaffney that no attempt had been made to subpoena "Mr Gibson".