In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

'Stroke' Fahy fails in bid to visit mother

Former Fianna Fáil county councillor Michael "Stroke" Fahy has been informed that he will not be released from Castlerea prison, Co Roscommon, to visit his elderly mother, writes Lorna Siggins.

Authorities at the prison are understood to have received a request on behalf of the councillor's 97-year-old mother, Mai, who has been residing in a south Galway nursing home.

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The Prison Service does not comment on individual cases, and would not confirm yesterday that the request had been made, but Mr Fahy did confirm it in a note sent to RTÉ.

The 56-year-old farmer and insurance agent, who served latterly as an independent councillor after resigning from Fianna Fáil, began a 12-month sentence in Castlerea on April 23rd.

He received the sentence and a €75,000 fine after he was found guilty of fraud and attempted theft from Galway County Council.

Man who set fire to Ferrari gets 5 years

A man who set fire to a Ferrari car valued at €132,000 has been described as a "walking time bomb" by a judge and jailed for five years.

Safet Bukoshi (34) from Albania, who had an address at Whiteoak, Clonskeagh, Dublin, told gardaí that he "received a message from God in English" to burn the Ferrari and his wife's Ford Fiesta, but he had been unable to find a lighter to set fire to the Fiesta.

A jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court found him guilty of arson of two cars in 2004. He was also convicted of attempted arson of a petrol pump and setting fire to a briefcase and jacket in the forecourt of the Shell service station, Roebuck Road, Clonskeagh.

Suspended term for young looter

A teenager, in Ireland without any parents, who took part in looting during the riots that erupted at the "Love Ulster" rally in Dublin last year, has been given an eight-month sentence at the Dublin Children's Court. However, the sentence was suspended on condition that he be of good behaviour.

The now 17-year-old youth from the Republic of Georgia, who has been in Ireland since September 2005, pleaded guilty to trespassing in the Schuh shop on O'Connell Street.

He also admitted possessing a set of pliers for use in connection with a theft offence, as well as separate theft charges.

Defence solicitor Michelle Finan had told the court that the teen, an asylum seeker, became a heroin addict after he "found life much different here than in Georgia".

Man jailed for oil laundering

A man has been jailed for two years for operating on a Co Meath site an illegal oil laundering operation, which Judge Desmond Hogan described as a "lucrative home cottage industry".

Martin Joyce (38) of Dunsink Lane, Finglas was also given a six-month concurrent sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on separate charges of failing to make tax returns.

Gardaí raid DVD pirating plant

A DVD pirating plant able to illegally copy 12,500 discs a day has been raided by gardaí in Co Louth.

The plant was found in a house in Kilcurry, west of Dundalk. A Garda source said it was suspected of supplying "markets in the Leinster region".