Businessman Breifne O'Brien, who pleaded guilty to multi-million euro charges of theft and deception in June, is destitute and living on €188 a week, his counsel told the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Patrick McGrath SC also told Judge Patricia Ryan that O'Brien was not only financially ruined but was socially ruined by what had happened.
He said his client not only lost his lifestyle, but he also lost his family. He was divorced from his wife and had little contact with his children, which caused him pain. He also had not spoken to his elderly father for six years, Mr McGrath said, although his mother, now in her 80s, was supportive and in court. There had been “considerable collateral damage” for his family.
O’Brien (52), Kilmore, Monkstown Grove, Co Dublin, had pleaded guilty to 14 sample counts of deception and theft that included stealing money and dishonestly inducing people to invest in bogus shipping and insurance schemes, as well as bogus property schemes in Paris, Manchester and Hamburg, between 2003 and 2008.
The guilty plea came after lengthy legal action in which O’Brien claimed he could not get a fair trial because of adverse publicity. Mr McGrath said his client seemed always to have believed he would be able to pay back the money he owed, but there had been “a confluence of events” in 2008 and “the house fell down”. He also said O’Brien denied he ever made a comment attributed to him that “it was easy to pull suckers in when the economy was booming”.
Mr McGrath highlighted a meeting O’Brien had with his victims in late 2008 when he “came clean” and confessed there was nothing behind the investments. He had since made efforts to make good the losses as far as he could, although he would not be in a position to come anywhere close.
A psychological report provided to the court set out treatment O’Brien was given when he attended Forest Healthcare in 2009. It also showed there were “substantial indications of remorse” and a realisation of the devastation he had caused to others.
He accepted he would face a custodial sentence, Mr McGrath said, and when he has finished with that, he would face “a difficult future”. His client understood he must be punished, but he asked the judge to take into account his previous good character, that he had volunteered information to a large extent and that he had shown genuine remorse.
He also asked the judge to "temper the punishment" to be imposed by considering O'Brien's plea of guilty as well as the "shame and humiliation" he would suffer and previous publicity. The publicity was unflattering and focused on "the opulence and wealth" his client and his wife displayed in the good years, while he was now on social welfare. There was "a high level of schadenfreude".
Unlike many others, O’Brien had also “fully co-operated with civil proceedings” and, putting himself at the mercy of the court, “stood and faced the music”, Mr McGrath said.
