A man in the motor trade who falsely claimed road accident insurance has been given a longer jail term after the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed against the leniency of the prison term he had originally been given.
The Court of Criminal Appeal increased from three to five years the prison sentence imposed on the company director for his role in insurance fraud schemes totalling some £324,000.
The court described the fraud as "calculated, deliberate and sophisticated".
The DPP had sought an increased sentence for Michael Byrne, arguing the original three year sentence imposed on him by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was "unduly lenient".
Byrne (40), of Newtownforbes, Co Longford, a director of Michael Byrne Motors, was convicted by a jury of conspiring with others to defraud the PMPA by falsely pretending that a genuine road accident had happened in 1994 at the M50 near Lucan, Co Dublin.
He pleaded guilty to additional charges of falsely obtaining money from the PMPA and Cornhill Insurance companies from a further series of staged accidents and from falsely reporting that a car had been stolen. The offences occurred on dates from 1994 to 1996 at a number of locations.
The Circuit Court had imposed two six year jail terms on two charges but suspended three years of those sentences in each case and also imposed three terms of four years, with the two final years suspended in each case, all to run concurrently.
Yesterday, allowing the appeal by the DPP, the Court of Criminal Appeal varied the sentences and substituted a five year jail term to run from the date of sentence.
In the Circuit Court, the gardaí were complemented by the judge for their "exemplary work" in the case.
The Circuit Court directed that €5,000 out of a sum of €50,000 which had been lodged in court on behalf of Byrne should be paid over to the Garda Benevolent Fund with the balance being paid to the PMPA
Giving the appeal court judgment, Mr Justice Murray, sitting with Mr Justice O'Sullivan and Mr Justice de Valera, said the offences were calculated, deliberate and sophisticated.
They involved careful preparation of a plan which created the circumstances where it would be believed a road traffic accident had taken place and that serious damage had been caused to particular vehicles and in some cases to individuals. He added that Byrne was in the motor trade and had clearly used his own knowledge and expertise.
Having regard to the gravity of the offences and notwithstanding matters which had been put forward in mitigation of behalf of Byrne, the appeal court was satisfied that the sentences imposed in the Circuit Court were not only lenient but unduly lenient, Mr Justice Murray said.