News
Jail for One Direction tickets conman
A teenager has been sentenced to eight months in prison for duping three people into lodging money into his bank account for non-existent One Directions tickets which he advertised for sale on the DoneDeal website.
Dean McKeown (19), of 14 Fana Glas, Ballybane, pleaded not guilty at Galway District Court this week to charges under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act.
Three people gave evidence they had responded to a advert on the Done Deal website between December 12 and 14 last year, which advertised six One Direction tickets for sale.
One woman said she knew the tickets were already sold out but she rang the number of the advertiser given on the website and bought the tickets over the phone.
All of the witnesses said they lodged varying amounts of money into McKeown’s bank account but never received the tickets. They had tried to contact the mobile number given in the advert but it was never answered in some cases and, in one instance, one of the victims was told McKeown was in hospital and that had caused the delay in sending her the tickets.
All of the victims contacted Gardai when the tickets never arrived and they realised they had been duped.
One victim said he had lodged €320 to McKeown’s account for three tickets.
A woman said she lodged €480 for six tickets, while another woman said she lodged €325 for four tickets and had even transferred €5 to McKeown’s account so that he could send the tickets to her by registered post.
Garda Jason Kelly said a third woman had rang him from Cork to say she was ill and could not attend court. Charges relating to her case were struck out as she was not present in court to give evidence.
Garda Kelly said he contacted the bank and received a printout of all transactions relating to McKeown’s bank account.
The records showed the monies from the three victims had all gone into his account and had been withdrawn almost immediately.
The male victim was the first to contact Gardai and McKeown was arrested and interviewed last January in relation to that.
He said he didn’t have a clue how the money got into his account and that someone else must have used his account.
He claimed to have lost his bank card and someone must have used it, but he didn’t know how they got his PIN.
Garda Kelly said that when the other three victims made complaints, he again arrested and interviewed McKeown on May 6.
On that occasion, McKeown told Garda Kelly his PIN and account number were with the bank card he had lost.
He said he had closed the bank account when he noticed the transactions and he reported the matter to the bank.
He also claimed he had never placed a advert on Done Deal and he was not the person who had spoken to the victims who rang the mobile number given on the website.
Garda Kelly said the phone number could not be traced as the user had used a ‘pay as you go” SIM card, which could be bought in any shop and could be easily discarded afterwards.
“An advert can be placed directly on the Done Deal website using this type of SIM and the price of the advert is taken from the credit on the phone. It cannot be traced,” Garda Kelly explained.
McKeown said in evidence he lost his bank card on a night out and his account number and PIN were with it.
Judge Mary Fahy said that normally, when a person loses their bank card, money is taken out of their account.
“I never heard of money going in. If someone got my card, I wouldn’t mind if they put money in my account,” she joked.
Insp Mick Dwyer said McKeown was fully aware and complicit in what was going on.
Judge Fahy agreed and she convicted McKeown, sentencing him to a total of eight months in prison. Leave to appeal was granted.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
