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Sting operation nabbed online fraudster
A 51-years-old man created a false identify and several fake documents to open a bank account and obtain goods on the internet while growing cannabis plants in a Salthill apartment.
Louis Rohr, a German national who lived in Galway for 10 years, with a last address at Apartment 1, Estoria House, Nile Lodge, before moving to the Pottery Studio, Castlecove in Co Kerry last year, pleaded guilty at Galway District Court to six charges of fraud and deception.
The court heard from his solicitor, Olivia Traynor, that this was a complex case with complex issues going on in her client’s life.
Rohr pleaded guilty to making a false Electric Ireland bill in the name of Jonathan Spencer, with the intention of using it to induce another person to accept it as genuine at the apartment in Estoria House, Nile Lodge between January 1 and February 20 last year.
He pleaded guilty to inducing a member of staff at Bank of Ireland, Eyre Square, to open a bank account in the name of Jonathan Spencer by producing false documents to him on January 10 last year.
He pleaded guilty also to inducing a member of staff at 3G Ireland in Dublin to accept as genuine a false German ID card and a false Electric Ireland bill in the name of Jonathan Spencer on February 20 last year.
He further pleaded guilty to having a false Irish driving licence in his possession on February 24 last year and to having a false EU identity card in his possession on the same date also.
Rohr finally pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis plants in the apartment on the same date.
Garda Paul McNulty gave evidence that 13 other similar charges of theft and fraud were being withdrawn by the State following the plea by the accused to the remaining six charges.
He said Rohr ordered a €549 mobile phone from the 3G Ireland website on February 20 last year, using the name Jonathan Spencer.
He entered into a 24-month contract with 3G and provided a fake German identity card and a fake Electric Ireland bill, both in the name of Jonathan Spencer, to the company as proof of his name and address.
The company had reservations about the documents provided and contacted the Gardaí in Galway. A sting operation ensued and when a courier arrived at the apartment to deliver the phone, Gardaí were waiting and Rohr admitted to them that he had made up the character, Jonathan Spencer.
He was arrested and his apartment searched. Gardaí seized a large number of fake identity cards, driving licences and two potted cannabis plants which were growing under heated lamps in the apartment’s sitting room.
Garda McNulty explained Rohr had entered a Bank of Ireland account number on the contract he had signed with 3G, using the name Jonathan Spencer. On further investigation bank staff confirmed a fake driving licence and Electric Ireland bill had been used by the accused to open the bank account under the false name.
Defence solicitor, Olivia Traynor said her client was born in Germany, moved with his family to the US when he was five and came to live in Galway in 2005.
He was a university graduate and this, she said, was a complex case but before she could get any further, Judge Mary Fahy interrupted and said she would be seeking a pre-sanction probation report on Rohr before proceeding to sentence.
She agreed it was a complex case which required such a report.
Ms Traynor said there was a lot going on in the background with a lot of medical issues involved.
“I could be here for a hour explaining things so a report would be beneficial,” she added.
Judge Fahy directed Rohr, who now resides in Kerry, to give his mobile number to a probation officer in Galway and she then asked for a pre- sanction probation report on the accused, to be prepared by the probation service in Kerry.
She adjourned the matter to October for the report and told Ms Traynor she could resume her submissions to the court then.
Some 60 tourism companies from Ireland attended ‘Flavours of Ireland’ 2022 in London last week – including Connemara Wild Escapes, DK Connemara Oysters and Killary Fjord Boat Tours.
‘Flavours’ is Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators.
Now in its 20th year, ‘Flavours’ took place in the Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 global inbound tour operators who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
‘Flavours’ provides an excellent opportunity for the participating tourism providers from Galway and Ireland to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the key decision-makers in attendance.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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From the Galway City Tribune – The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has asked Galway City Council to roll back material alterations to the new City Development Plan proposed by councillors.
In July, elected members voted through a raft of changes to zonings in the Draft City Development Plan 2023-29, which went out on public display.
But the Planning Regulator has now warned City Hall that many of the proposed changes do not comply with the OPR’s recommendations, and are contrary to national planning guidelines.
The OPR specifically highlighted problems with proposals to rezone as residential land deemed at risk of flooding.
Anne Marie O’Connor, Deputy Regulator, wrote to the Council’s Planning Department outlining the OPR’s fresh advice on the changes to the draft plan proposed and approved by councillors.
The draft plan will come before elected members again this month.
Councillors will be asked to row back on some of their previous material alterations, which ran contrary to advice of the OPR.
Ms O’Connor said the OPR welcomed many of the changes made by the City Council in its draft plan. She said, however, that the OPR “has a number of outstanding concerns relating to the response of the planning authority to its recommendations and to a number of proposed material alterations relating to the zoning of lands”.
These relate to changes that conflict with national and regional objectives for compact growth; with legislative requirements regarding climate action and core strategies; and with rezoning land at risk of flooding.
The OPR highlighted a dozen or more material alterations by councillors that are “not consistent” with the National Planning Framework for compact growth.
These include re-zoning of land from agricultural or recreational and amenity to residential.
The changes voted on by councillors, the OPR noted, were done against the advice of the Council’s Chief Executive Brendan McGrath.
The OPR said the changes proposed by councillors represented a “piecemeal approach” to zoning and were “inconsistent” with national policy.
These comments related to proposed rezoning of land at Rahoon; Dublin Road; Quarry Road, Menlo; Ballindooley; off Circular Road; Menlo village; Roscam and Barna Woods.
The OPR also raised “significant concerns” over five material alterations proposed for residential zonings of land at Western Distributor Road; Terryland; Menlo Village; Headford Road and Barna Woods which are located within flood zones.
The approach by councillors “may place people and property at unnecessary risk from future flood events”, the OPR warned.
Ms O’Connor told planners that if the draft plan ignores the OPR advice or is at odds with its recommendations, the Council Chief Executive must inform the OPR in writing the reasons for doing so.
Save Roscam Peninsula in a 33-page submission to the draft plan echoed many of the concerns outlined by the OPR.
The Council has pencilled in four dates in November and December to approve the plan.
It will meet on November 21, 24 and 28 and December 1 when material alterations will be voted on individually.
This article first appeared in the print edition of the Galway City Tribune, November 4. You can support our journalism by subscribing to the Galway City Tribune HERE. The print edition is in shops every Friday.
JOHN HARNEY from Mountpleasant first joined the Ballinasloe Horse and Agriculture Show Committee, all of 60-years ago, on April 24, 1962. Both John and the show are still going strong as they celebrate their 183rd event on this Sunday. Here, he looks back on his involvement with this iconic show through the years.
THE Ballinasloe Show back in the early 1960s was going well with both the Showgrounds and Duggan Park both used for running the competitions.
My first introduction to the show was stewarding the pony competitions in the Mountpleasant end of the Duggan Park with the rest of the GAA field being used for trade stands.
At that time, it was a very big show with horses, ponies, cattle and sheep, pigs and fowl – also there was a big garden and farm produce section as well as a home craft and baking section with flowers and plants supported by a very large women’s committee.
At that time, showjumping took place in the afternoon with the top riders in the country taking part. I was elected Chairman at the AGM in 1975, a position I held for ten years.
During that time, the Duggan Park Committee approached the Show Committee for a piece of the showgrounds behind the GAA Stand for dressing rooms.
This was brought up a number of times at our committee meetings, and at first, the view was that the Duggan Park Committee would buy the ground.
However, after much deliberation it was decided by the Show Committee to ‘give the ground’ for the sum of £1 with the proviso that the dressingrooms could be used on show days by the local ICA to do catering for the event.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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