A former traffic warden who frittered away €300,000 he stole in coins from Ennis Town Council was today jailed for three years.
At Ennis Circuit Court today, Judge Carroll Moran said that it was "extraordinary" that former Ennis Town Council traffic warden, Christopher Harford (33) of Cluain Ard, Kilmaley, Co Clare could steal such a huge sum undetected.
He said: "It is best I don't pass anymore comment on it."
Judge Moran said that Harford was in a position of responsibility being a Supervisor Traffic Warden and had broken trust with his employer by stealing a huge amount of money.
In his favour, Judge Moran said that Harford had pleaded guilty at an early stage in the District Court, has no previous convictions and that the coverage of the case in some sections of the press had been "fairly humiliating" for the man.
Judge Moran said that he also took into account the psychological report lodged on Mr Harford's behalf, which said that prison will be extremely difficult for him.
At a previous hearing, Judge Moran requested Harford to account for a missing €200,000 of the €300,000 and in response, Harford provided a schedule of expenditure accounting for €263,825 of the money without receipts.
Judge Moran said yesterday: "He cannot account for every penny and is quite emphatic that there is no stash. I don't know if it is true or not true, but the law obliges me to give him the benefit of the doubt."
Judge Moran said if Harford had pleaded not guilty to the stealing which took place between August 1999 and September 2002 and was convicted by a jury, he would have sentenced him for five years.
Judge Moran said: "Because, he pleaded guilty and other factors I mentioned in his favour, I am imposing a sentence of three years on each charge to run concurrently."
When asked leave to appeal against severity by Michael Fitzgibbon BL, Judge Moran refused, stating: "I don't think the sentence is severe."
The court heard that when asked to account for the missing money, Harford admitted that he was a compulsive spender. He said: "It was part of my compulsion, I had a spending problem. "
The court heard that Harford had frittered away the money on foreign holidays, weekends away around Ireland and spent €185,000 on trying to develop an ill-fated taxi-business.
The court heard that Harford made various improvements to his home, including €5,000 on flowerbeds, €4,500 on his driveway and an undisclosed sum to court on a bed with a PC desk underneath.
The court also heard that he spent €6,000 on mobile phones, including €1,000 each on two phones.
Mr Harford was finally detected on the 30th September 2002, when Gardai mounted a surveillance operation at Dunnes Stores car park in Ennis where Mr Harford was seen driving his 2001 registered Mercedes into the carpark and emptying the parking metres before later that day being spotted by Gardai making coin lodgements to a bank in Ennis.