A businessman from Longford has been jailed for two years for his role in conspiring to defraud Guardian PMPA insurance company of more than IR£70,000 by staging a fake accident in 1994.
Aloysius Manning (57), of Ballagh, Newtown Forbes, was found guilty by a jury in October at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court following an 18-day trial.
A married man with four children, he had no previous convictions.
He was convicted of conspiring with Michael Byrne of Michael Byrne Motors, Longford and Gerard Smyth, of Cloonglassney, Strokestown, Co Roscommon, to defraud Guardian PMPA, now AXA Insurance, of IR£70,438 by pretending that an accident happened at Annaduff, Drumsna, Co Leitrim on April 10th, 1994.
Judge Joseph Matthews said he had no option but to impose a jail sentence for what was "a calculated and significantly well-planned crime".
Manning was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers who had listened to all the complexity of the evidence and were satisfied he was guilty, the judge said.