Man back in Ireland on fraud charges

A WEXFORD insurance broker suspected of disappearing with clients’' money had Christmas dinner with the Irish ambassador in Hungary while international search warrants were out for his arrest, a court heard.

William (Bill) Deegan, who was extradited back to Ireland on Wednesday night following a 10-year criminal investigation, insisted he did not know gardaí and Interpol were looking for him.

He claimed he told Hungarian police who confronted him with extradition papers last month that he would take the first plane to Ireland to sort out the matter, but they arrested him and he had to endure five weeks in a communal cell in a Budapest jail.

Mr Deegan, a separated father of five in his late 50s from New Ross, Co Wexford, told Gorey District Court yesterday he lived openly under his own name in Hungary where he had a job at a well-known golf club and he had never tried to hide.

Last July with the help of the Hungarian tourist office, he even arranged a trip to the club for a group of Irish sports journalists and had framed press cuttings of their visit, in which he was quoted by name, hung on his wall.

Mr Deegan was before the court on two charges of theft by fraudulently converting a client’'s money for his own use or benefit. One charge, dated July 13 1992, related to a bank draft for £9,250 (11,747) in the name of Marcella Irwin who had given it to him to invest for her.

The second charge, dated June 4th 1993, involved a cheque for £23,428.10 (29,753.68) again in Marcella Irwin’s name, of which Mr Deegan is accused of stealing £19,278.10 (24,483.18). He denies the offences.

Sergeant Bart Slattery of New Ross told the court there were warrants for other charges in existence but they had not yet been put to Mr Deegan. He opposed bail for the accused on the grounds that he might abscond.

Solicitor, Simon Kennedy, for Mr Deegan, Simon Kennedy, objected, arguing that his client had lived openly in Ireland for 14 months after he was last interviewed by gardaíi in 1995 and had returned for a time in 2000, making no attempt to conceal his whereabouts.

During a 45-minute legal argument, the court heard that warrants were issued for Mr Deegan’'s arrest on foot of a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1999, following a lengthy investigation. Mr Deegan was living in Germany teaching golf at this time and moved to Hungary in March of that year.

He said he didn’'t know there were warrants out for him. He was well-known in the Irish community in Hungary and to Irish Embassy staff and had been entertained by the Irish ambassador. “"I thought it (the investigation) had been completed. I thought they (the gardaíi) would contact me,” he said.

Judge Conal Gibbons eventually consented to independent bail of 90,000, ordering 30,000 to be lodged in court in cash before Mr Deegan was released, and remanding him in custody to New Ross District Court until next Tuesday to give him time to produce the money and allow gardaíi check out its source.