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.