Homeless man to be sentenced over fake travel passes

A homeless man is to be sentenced later after he was caught with several fake travel passes, including one in the name of Brad Pitt.

Clive Keogh (40) was formerly a successful businessman and graphic designer who ran his own printing firm, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

However the father-of-one lost everything and ended up divorced and homeless when the recession hit and he took to drink, his counsel explained.

Keogh, of no fixed abode but with a former address at Brookhaven Drive in Blanchardstown, was caught after a garda stopped to chat to him on Parnell Street on November 7th, 2013.

Garda Donal Donoghue told John Byrne, prosecuting, that he became suspicious when he saw Keogh moving something plastic from his front trouser pocket to his rear pocket.

Garda Donoghue asked for a look and saw that Keogh had a free travel card in his own name that appeared to be fake.

Keogh was arrested and handed over a small USB key to gardaí on which there were a number of other false travel passes, which he said he had created in an internet shop.

Keogh pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a false travel pass with the intention of inducing another to accept it as genuine.

He also admitted possessing four other free travel passes on the USB key, in the names of Stephen Lyons, Anthony Keegan, David Doyle and Brad Pitt who was stated as having an address in Donnybrook.

Keogh told gardaí he made the travel pass in order to be able to visit his son who lived in Navan.

He said he had made between five and 10 such cards for other people.

Keogh has 18 previous minor convictions, including theft, intoxication in a public place, criminal damage, violent behaviour in a Garda station and drink-driving.

Garda Donoghue agreed with Paul Carroll, defending, that Keogh had co-operated fully with the Garda investigation.

Mr Carroll said his client had spent time in Australia and that after he had come back with his wife in the early 2000s, he set up a successful printing business.

But counsel said things went “pear-shaped” in the mid-2000s when business dipped and Keogh began drinking and underwent an acrimonious divorce.

Alcohol abuse was the root of much of Keogh’s marital difficulties, the court heard.

Counsel said Keogh now has limited access to his young son and has completed rehabilitation courses in Cluain Mhuire.

The court received letters from Fr Peter McVerry and from Focus Ireland who said Keogh is on a waiting list for housing and is attending aftercare and AA meetings.

Judge Catherine Murphy adjourned the sentence until July 9th and asked for updated reports on that date from probation and accommodation services.