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Moycullen accountant avoids jail for fraudulent activity
Galway Bay fm newsroom – A Moycullen accountant has received a six-month suspended sentence for creating false documents, used to facilitate mortgage applicants obtain mortgages totalling more than 10 million euro from ACC Bank.
58-year-old Gerard Carr, of Homefarm, Moycullen, had initially been charged with 48 counts of forging P60′s, payslips, End of Year Accounts, Sole Trader Accounts and Statements of Affairs, using company headed paper, knowing they were false, between 2004 and 2009.
He pleaded guilty to six sample charges relating to the forgery of documents last May.
Detective Paul McHugh told the sentence hearing at Galway Circuit Criminal Court that 48 forged documents were created by the accused.
The documents were added to 22 loan files at ACC Bank with just over 10.1 million euro being lent to mortgage applicants as a result.
Detective McHugh said the accused offered bookkeeping services to small businesses and he would help his clients apply for loans.
The offences came to light when ACC took one of its customers to the Commercial Court because the loan was not performing and the customer asked to see his own bank file.
In it, he found a fake P60 with his name on it which showed the inflated earnings, Detective McHugh said.
The matter was then referred to the Garda Fraud Squad.
Prosecuting barrister, Conor Fahy, said “these offences occurred during the height of the Celtic Tiger when financial institutions were firing money at all and sundry.”
Senior Defence Counsel Bernard Madden, said with hindsight Carr regretted his actions.
Passing sentence, Judge Rory McCabe said imposing a custodial sentence would not be in the interests of justice and would be disproportionate as there was no evidence of anybody suffering a loss.
He said the accused had shown remorse, was now gainfully employed and was a productive member of society.
Judge McCabe imposed concurrent six-month sentences on each charge which he suspended unconditionally.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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