A former garda who accepted a £500 (€635) bribe from a man he arrested for drink-driving has been jailed for six months in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Seamus Doherty (41), from Churchtown, Dublin, had pleaded guilty to corruption on December 23rd, 2000. He had received a three-year suspended sentence and a €3,809 fine in November last year in the Circuit Criminal Court.
However, the original sentence was appealed by the Director of Public Prosecutions who said it was too lenient.
Doherty had asked Mr John Tobin to give him £20,000 ((€25,395) to avoid being prosecuted for drink-driving. Mr Tobin had told Doherty he needed his licence for work purposes. Doherty subsequently settled for the much lesser sum of £500.
Mr Tobin talked the matter over with his wife and reported it to gardaí. Doherty was arrested by watching gardaí when he met Mr Tobin in the car park of a Terenure pub to collect the money.
