Garda body issues legal threat over phone bill

THE Garda Representative Association (GRA) says it will take legal action against the state if it continues to refuse to pay for a garda’s mobile phone which was deliberately smashed after a gang viciously beat him and threw him down and embankment.

The GRA, which represents 12,000 rank and file gardaí said it’s “outraged” by the refusal of the Garda authorities to pay out €250 for the Samsung phone, despite the fact that a number of the garda’s superiors, including a chief superintendent, had fully endorsed his claim.

The attack took place last May when the young garda spotted two foreign nationals acting suspiciously in a rural part of north Cork. He gave chase in his patrol car for several miles, clocking up speeds of up to 100km/h on narrow country roads, before the gang suddenly stopped their green Toyota near Rathduff village, on the northern outskirts of Cork city.