Old people deserve protection, said a judge, after hearing how a 59-year-old man had stolen more than €21,000 from an elderly bachelor farmer whom he had befriended.
Judge Sinead Behan told James O’Driscoll (59), of Upper High Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork, he should be ashamed of himself when he appeared before her at Cork Circuit Criminal Court and pleaded guilty to dishonestly appropriating €21,600 belonging to the farmer.
“Shame on you for doing what you did, abusing an elderly vulnerable man,” said Judge Behan after hearing how O’Driscoll defrauded the 82-year-old of the money between March 14th and April 19th, 2022, contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2021.
Garda Jonathan McCarthy of Schull Garda station told the court O’Driscoll befriended the farmer after he sought permission from him to allow his ponies graze on his land and he later asked him for €2,400 to help with his son’s confirmation.
Planning rules for cabins and modular homes in back gardens set to be relaxed
‘Alarming’ incidence of ‘sex for rent’ advertisements, survey of international students finds
Verona Murphy is on a Whac-A-Mole mission in the Dáil chamber
Ten people died in a furnace of twisted metal in Creeslough. Now the owner wants to build another filling station
The farmer wrote a cheque for that sum but while he filled out the written part of the cheque correctly stating the amount was €2,400, he had not filled out the correct figure in the box. Rather than writing €2,400 the farmer had written €24,000.
Some €24,000 was lodged into O’Driscoll’s Permanent TSB account and within a month O’Driscoll withdrew €21,600.
The farmer discovered what had happened when a number of cheques came back unpaid due to insufficient funds and gardaí traced the missing money to O’Driscoll. He admitted the money had ended up in his account but claimed he did not know where it had come from.
Permanent TSB reimbursed the farmer for the €21,600.
Garda McCarthy told the court O’Driscoll had 68 previous convictions including one for manslaughter, assault, public order, possession of drugs for sale or supply, road traffic matters and theft.
Cross-examined by defence barrister Mahon Corkery, Garda McCarthy agreed O’Driscoll’s guilty plea was of some significance in the case as it spared the farmer having to come to court. He accepted O’Driscoll had expressed remorse.
Mr Corkery said his client had a harsh childhood, coming from a large family of settled Travellers. He began abusing alcohol when he was 13 which accounted for most of his previous convictions.
Judge Behan said she would adjourn the case for a period of time to see if any suitable community service work was available for the defendant. She also ordered him to pay compensation to Permanent TSB at a rate of €50 a week.
The case was then adjourned to November 13th.
