Man impersonated garda to steal €28,000

A man who impersonated a garda to steal €28,000 from a pensioner in Cork and fled to England two days before his trial was jailed for three-and-a-half years yesterday.

Kenneth Lyons, 31, of Willison Meadows, Tower, Blarney, Co Cork, was sentenced to five years with the final 18 months suspended by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

The victim who was 70 years old at the time of the crime at his home in the area of Wolfe Tone Street, Cork, on Sunday, June 26, 2011, had withdrawn his life savings from the bank because of his fears about the safety of the banks.