DoneDeal scammer jailed for five years

A Galway City man – believed by Gardaí to be one of the most prolific scam artists in the country using the DoneDeal website – was finally jailed for five years this week.

Owen Maughan (40), a father of five, from 39 Innishannagh Park, Newcastle, regularly used the website to sell livestock trailers which were stolen in broad daylight from farmers attending marts in Galway and Clare last year.

Maughan has already served a lengthy prison sentence for the theft of two other livestock trailers, and for selling non-existent concert tickets, match tickets, and car parts to unsuspecting punters on the website. That sentence was imposed in July, 2016, and expired last August.

Suspected for many years as the man behind numerous Done Deal scams in the Galway area, Maughan – who has 91 previous convictions for mostly crimes of deception and theft – was this week jailed for five years with the final year suspended at Galway Circuit Criminal Court for the latest spate of livestock trailer thefts.

Detective Paul McNulty, who had investigated Maughan’s activities over the last two years, told the sentence hearing that, for as long as he had known him, Maughan had never abided by any law or any bail conditions.

“He persisted in this crime wave, selling tickets and things on DoneDeal that do not exist and selling stolen livestock trailers.  I would say this is one of the nastiest crimes there is.”
To read the rest of this court report, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.