A 54-YEAR-OLD grandmother received a two-year jail term at the Circuit Court in Waterford in relation the theft of more that €65,000 from a farmer in 2006 and 2007.
Kathleen Lewis (55), Blackwater Heights, Youghal, Co Cork, was found guilty on February 6th last of stealing the money from retired farmer George Berry (88).
The charges arise out of an incident in the car park at a Centra store in Killeagh, Co Cork, in March 2006, when a car driven by Mr Berry was reputed to have damaged that belonging to Lewis.
Lewis, a mother of 10, accused Mr Berry, of Ballylusky, Ballynoe in Co Cork, of hitting her car.
She told Mr Berry, a single man who had been living alone at the time, that she had two of her grandchildren in the back of her car and that they were thrown into the front of the vehicle, such was the impact.
However, no medical reports have ever substantiated Lewis’s claims.
She had demanded that he hand over cash to her in amounts which eventually totalled €65,000.
The court yesterday heard that, after her conviction, she was given time by the judge to pay back the money. Lewis, through various efforts, had raised a total of €18,800 as a partial repayment to Mr Berry.
It emerged in court yesterday that Lewis was unsuccessful in raising any more money since the last adjournment of the case.
Imposing the sentence, in addition to a two-year suspended term, Judge Rory MacCabe said that Lewis showed no real remorse after taking “advantage of an elderly, vulnerable man”.
