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 KCLR96fm (Kilkenny Carlow Radio) reported details, yesterday, of a burglary which took place on the Tipperary / Kilkenny border, on Friday night last.
Gardaí in Kilkenny are appealing for information on this break-in, which occurred in the town of Urlingford; targeting the Bernard Kavanagh Bus Depot, at some stage during the period Friday night – Saturday morning.
Cutting equipment is understood to have been used, permitting thieves to enter the premises. An unknown quantity of property was stolen during the break-in, leading police to believe that the thieves spent some time inside the depot.
Kilkenny Gardaí are most anxious to speak to anybody (Tel: 056-7775000) who may have been in that area overnight on Friday /Saturday morning and who may have noticed anything suspicious.
 I confess I have very little understanding of the workings of our legal system. However a basic understanding of right and wrong was instilled in me from an early age; the substance of which I committed to memory. I refer of course to the learning of the Ten Commandments, as recorded in the Old Testament Bible books of Exodus (Israelites coming out of slavery) and Deuteronomy (The second statement of Law).
No longer imparted to students in our today’s educational institutions with the same conviction; these same Ten Commandments included one particular strong directive; Commandment No. 8, if my memory serves me correctly, containing just four words “Thou shalt not steal”.
Today a former Bank of Ireland employee has been jailed for one year (12 Months) for stealing €144,000 from her place of employment between the years 2004 and 2012, (which surely says something about banking checks and balances). Note the total amount stolen was just over €144,000. We are informed that the female employee in question paid back everything she stole, however she has lost her job and has been forced to sell her house.
Passing judgement on the case, Judge M/s Melanie Greally correctly stated that activity of this kind, committed by persons in her position, should be marked by an appropriate jail sentence, which she felt was 12 months in prison.
Compare this case to the “Green Jersey” Agenda Court Case.
Now let us look at the comparisons. Three senior Irish bankers, one of whom was from Co. Tipperary, were jailed in 2016 for their role in the collapse of a bank. Their jail sentence was for up to three and a half years for conspiring to defraud investors arising from the 2008 banking crisis. They were the first senior bankers in Ireland to be jailed, following a 74 day criminal trial (Ireland’s longest ever at the tax payers expense). Actual crime committed; conspiring together and with others to mislead investors, depositors and lenders, by setting up a 7.2 billion Euro circular transaction scheme between March and September of 2008, to bolster Anglo Irish Bank’s balance sheet. Judge Mr Martin Nolan, passing judgement, described this conspiracy as a “very serious crime”.
Did our three senior Irish bankers sell their homes or make any restitution, to the same degree, as did our Bank of Ireland employee?
The ‘Banking Crash’ pushed Ireland into three years of a sovereign bailout in 2010 and during our sojourn on this earth it will still take at least another 10 years for us, as a nation, to recover all funding pumped into presently operating banks.
Remember we had to stump up some 64 billion Euro; that is almost 40% of our annual economic output, after our property collapse forced the biggest state bank rescue in the Euro zone.
We are led to believe that, “Justice is blind”. This expression literally means that justice is both impartial and objective. Lady justice, also known as Iustitia, the statue that appears on the exterior of certain ‘Halls of Justice’; she who wears the blindfold (representing impartiality), holds a scales or balance (representing the measuring of the strengths of both sides of any case), and a sword (representing authority), all lead us to believe that justice must not treat close acquaintances differently to total strangers, or indeed rich people better than those penniless.
So, my question, taking into account my failure to fully understand the current principals of the Irish Justice system and the forgetfulness of bankers to remember the ‘Eighth Commandment’, is; “Is the justice metered out here, in both these court cases, fully proportional and equally balanced?”
Mr Daniel Kelly, aged 24, with an address at Tulla, Capparoe, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, pleaded guilty to arson, causing €77,500 worth of damage, at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court this week. The damage, which was caused in February 2015, referred to a barn and farm machinery on the property of Mr Patrick Scanlan, Garraunboy, Killaloe, Co. Clare.
A co-accused named as Mr Cathal Griffin, aged 26, of Wilton, Ballymackey, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary also pleaded guilty to the theft of property valued at €3,800. All together item found missing included power hoses, a quantity of electric fencing, electric tools, solid fuel and a chainsaw.
The fire destroyed two attached farm buildings, together with housed farm machinery, including two silage trailers (€30,000), one fertiliser spreader (€4,000), one silage spreader (€2,500), and new tractor tyres.
The victim of the crime, Mr Scanlan, explained that a number of tools and equipment, valued at some €6,000 had also been stolen, including an angle grinder and approximately six bags of coal. While some of these items had been recovered; there remained a debt of €2,000 outstanding.
Gardaí identified Mr Kelly as the person responsible, having recovered a number of the stolen items from an other individual, who had received them from the accused. Co-accused Mr Griffin was identified from a silver Nissan Micra car used and recorded on CCTV.
Justice Mr Gerald Keys reserved his judgement in the case and adjourned sentencing to April 25th next.
A court heard today that a Lithuanian male, Mr Tomas Mikalajunas, was accidentally shot in the face and seriously injured by armed Gardaí, when they intercepted an international burglary gang, at a checkpoint between Ardagh and Shanagolden, Co Limerick, on June 28th 2016 last.
Mr Aurimas Petraska, a Lithuanian man, aged 32, with addresses at Kaunas, Lithuania, and Church Street, Rathkeale, Co Limerick; also, a known associate of the wounded man, today pleaded guilty to a string of major burglaries, involving the theft of €150,000 of women’s clothes and ‘Chanel’ beauty products, from pharmacies across the province of Munster.
While Mr Petraska was the only member of the gang to be charged; Mr Michael Collins prosecuting, informed Limerick Circuit Court, of the gang’s precision, military style operations. Dressed in black fatigues and wearing head lights, this gang were observed on CCTV footage inside the premises they were looting; checking their watches, as they limited themselves to strictly a 6 minute operation.
Amongst the premises raided and ransacked were O’Briens Pharmacy, Cahir, Co. Tipperary, where €20,000 worth of Chanel products was stolen, together with products from two other premises; one situated in Co. Cork and one in Co. Limerick.
Mr Petraska admitted using cheap cars fitted out with cement blocks, which were used as battering rams to gain access through the fronts of these business premises.
Mr Justice Tom O’Donnell today, praised highly, members of Cork Division Gardaí, led by Det. Insp. Joe Moore; Det. Gda. Michael Brosnan, and Det. Gda. Ailish Murphy, for their professionalism in tracking the gang over a two-year period, which involved the use of both Europol and Interpol resources.
Mr Petraska, who pleaded guilty to the charges, had his sentencing adjourned to May 5th 2017 next.
 Templemore Garda Training College Campus. Some nineteen recommendations have been made concerning the financial irregularities found at the Garda Training College in Templemore, Co. Tipperary.
The governments Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, Mr Seán Fleming (Fianna Fáil) has requested that the Garda Commissioner, Mrs Nóirín O’Sullivan, should now be called on to further explain what he himself described as “a breakdown of all financial controls” at the Garda College campus.
The Garda Internal Audit Section have forwarded a report to the Minister for Justice, Mrs Frances Fitzgerald and the Garda Commissioner, Mrs Nóirín O’Sullivan. Same focuses on previous and outdated accounting practices; detailing so called financial irregularities at the Tipperary College, over the past 6.5 years approximately.
Same report (Audited between January 2009 and March 2016, when around €112m was spent), based on 50 bank accounts audited, is understood to contain evidence of the complex switching of funds between financial statements, resulted in a non-transparent system of accounting, which indicates that monies were possibly expended on gifts and entertainment.
The audit report is understood to have contained the following information:
(A) The auditors stated that they could give no assurance that the financial controls at the Garda College were compliant with public financial procedures or the Garda Finance Code.
(B) A sum of €124,903 was collected in rent for Dromad Farm, Clonmore, Templemore, Co. Tipperary. [Latter was a 220 acre site, purchased using tax payer funding, for use by the college as a possible Tactical Training Centre, at the Celtic Tiger inflated price of €5.5 million, back about 2006. The property was never used for the intended purpose.]
While the holding company for this land was operated by Garda College management as directors, the Office of Public Works (OPW), it would now appear, was the legal owner of this property. In their right therefore, the report states, the OPW were entitled to receive this financial emolument, some of which may have actually been spent on entertainment, presentations, sponsorship and donations to charity, e.g. Fiacri House & Restaurant, Boulerea, Knock, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary (€740.00), Lions Club (€120.00), Special Olympics (€100.00), St Joseph’s School (€200.00), and four presentations made on the transfer and retirement of senior Garda personnel (€1,588.00).
The report also states that Garda staff, who were Directors of the land company now need to correct the public record and make declarations under the Ethics in Public Office and Standards in Public Office legislation. It also insists that all land and buildings at Templemore should be transferred immediately into the ownership of the OPW, to which the latter should be paid more than €120,000 in back rent.
(C) It found that some 37% of a ‘Laundry and Services’ account, was not being used for the true purpose stated. Indications relating to this account suggest that monies were used for other purposes, e.g. Meals and Entertainment (€7,231.00), Contributions to Charities (€3,030.00), Parish Clergy (€2,150.00) and Golf Society (€1,040.00).
(D) Issues found in relation to the College Bar possibly relate to poor management and inadequate stock control, rather than any suspicion of theft or fraud.
The auditors now recommend
(1) A company based at the college, known as the ‘Garda College Sports Field Company Limited’ be wound up.
(2) Funding applications from College Clubs and Societies be evaluated in a more transparent manner.
(3) The report criticises the fact that Garda staff in administrative roles at the college, remain in ignorance regarding public financial procedures, essential to the correct running of the college.
This report also stresses that its findings are only an interim testimony and that further more in-depth auditing is possibly required.
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