A former Eircom director who defrauded a building society out of €1.4 million for the purpose of setting up a lottery in Peru has been jailed for four years.

A FÁS executive was charged today with 47 counts of defrauding the state training agency of more than €600,000.

A man who was caught with €17,614 of cannabis after a sniffer dog identified his luggage as suspicious at Dublin Airport has been sentenced to five years in prison.

THE head of the Garda Representative Association has welcomed the Justice Minister’s pledge of an additional €2 million to fight crime but said it had to be viewed in the context of a €23m cut in garda funding this year.