Man told to pay €7.5k for flooding yard of ex-employer

A DISGRUNTLED ex- employee who pumped almost six million litres of water into the industrial yard of his former employer has been ordered to pay €7,400 compensation to the owners if he wants to avoid jail.

Martin Geary, aged 51, of 15 Amberly Heights, Grange, Cork, previously pleaded guilty to two counts arising out of the incident at OM Concrete Products, Tramore Road, Cork, on October 24, 2009.

He admitted trespassing on the property with intent to commit an offence and a second charge of causing criminal damage.

Defence solicitor Eddie Burke said the defendant was more than willing to pay compensation and had brought €2,000 to court towards that end but he disputed the €7,400 estimate of the damage put forward by owner Frank O’Mahony.

Judge Leo Malone yesterday accepted Mr O’Mahony’s valuation of the damage, which he made with the assistance of his accountant. The judge ordered Geary to bring €7,400 to court for Mr O’Mahony in three months.

Mr O’Mahony said that he asked an engineer to estimate the amount of water that had flooded from the damaged hydrant into the yard over the 64 hours of the long weekend before staff arrived for work on the Tuesday morning. The estimate was put at 5.7 million litres.

Mr Burke said the defendant had no previous convictions and that he was putting his hands up in relation to his wrong-doing and now accepted that he should not have taken the law into his own hands.

Detective Garda Feehan said of the defendant: “He scaled a boundary wall and broke an outside tap off a wall. He placed a hose on the pipe from the water mains to flood the compound and the yard. This was on the Saturday afternoon of the October bank holiday weekend (2009).”

When staff returned to work the compound was flooded in a few feet of water.

The court was told that Geary was very forthcoming and co-operative with the investigation as soon as he was approached.