Warrant issued for man on bail
Dimitrijs Kokosko, aged 21, was due before Cork District Court yesterday to be sentenced.
However, Kokosko’s solicitor, Eddie Burke, said: “He has returned to Lithuania.”
Rather than sentencing him in his absence, Judge Leo Malone said: “He is on bail, he has not honoured his bail. In those circumstances I will issue a bench warrant.”
The case was previously in court on July 25, when the defendant did not appear.
On that occasion, Mr Burke indicated his client was pleading guilty.
The charges related to six separate occasions when Kokosko collected the social welfare payment of another man, who was in prison at the time and would therefore not have been entitled to have someone claim it for him.
The charges each state that on the particular date Kokosko went to Ballintemple Post Office in Blackrock, Cork, and dishonestly by deception induced the clerk to make a payment of €261 with the intention of making a gain for himself.
The defendant was charged with six counts such as this relating to weekly dates between September 16 and October 21, 2010.
The total loss to the state was €1,305. Kokosko was caught with the cash on the sixth occasion.
