Callely pleads guilty to fraudulent use of invoice for mobile phone expenses

Former senator and minister of state Ivor Callely has pleaded guilty to fraudulently using an invoice to claim mobile phone expenses during his time in office.

Callely, (55), St Lawrence’s Road, Clontarf, had been due to stand trial later this month after being sent forward from the District Court on charges relating to using invoices as false instruments for receipt of expenses for handsets and equipment, under the Oireachtas members direct purchase mobile phone scheme.

Yesterday Mr Callely pleaded guilty to using a Business Communication Limited invoice dated January 2002 as a false instrument on November 21st or 22nd at Leinster House, Kildare Street.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, set a sentence date of July 22nd, when the full facts will be heard. Tony McGillicuddy, defending, said he expected the sentence hearing to take 40 minutes.

Born in Dublin in 1958, Callely was educated at St Paul’s College in Raheny and Fairview College on the north side of the city which would later become his political base. He graduated with a diploma in business studies and worked as a representative for a pharmaceutical company.

He was elected to Dublin City Council in 1985 . In 1989, he was elected a Fianna Fáil TD for the constituency of Dublin North Central. In 2002, 13 years into his Dáil career, the then taoiseach Bertie Ahern made him a minister of state at the Department of Health with responsibility for the elderly. He later went on to serve in the Department of Transport.

Callely was embroiled in several controversies and he had to resign his junior ministry in 2005 when it was revealed that a construction company had arranged for his Clontarf home to be painted some years previously.

He later lost his Dáil seat and served a term in the Seanad, appointed by Mr Ahern as one of his 11 nominees to the House.