Ex-senator Callely faces sentencing

Former junior minister Ivor Callely will be sentenced on Monday for fraudulently claiming mobile-phone expenses at Leinster House while he was a senator.

The case was adjourned to allow counsel for the DPP to make submissions on whether Callely’s former position as a senior politician is an aggravating factor in the case.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring put it to counsel that “a politician is a person inposition who in effect sets the legal parameters on which everyday people operate and when they offend against the legal parameters they effectively say, ‘Do as I say, not as I do’.”

Callely, aged 56, of St Lawrence Rd, Clontarf, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to four counts of using invoices believing them to be false instruments between November 2007 and December 2009 at Leinster House while he was a member of the Seanad.

The court heard he used invoices from defunct businesses to claim expenses under an Oireachtas scheme that allows members to claim €750 for mobile phones every 18 months.

After Callely became aware of the scheme in August 2007, shortly after being appointed a senator, he began submitting for expenses at 18-month intervals. He also submitted retrospective invoices from his time as a TD.

He fraudulently claimed a total of €4,207.45 using six invoices. The court heard that during a Garda interview in 2012, Callely suggested a former business partner, deceased by that time, was responsible for the fake claims.

The fraud came to light when an Irish Mail on Sunday journalist requested details of some of these expenses under the Freedom of Information Act.

This prompted Callely to withdraw the claims and repay some of the expenses. Gardaí began investigating and discovered two of the companies which Callely claimed sold him the phones were no longer in business.

Michael O’Higgins, defending, said his client has 25 years of public service behind him and has suffered greatly, both personally and professionally, because of the charges.

He asked Judge Ring to consider imposing community service instead of a prison sentence.

Judge Ring remanded Callely on continuing bail until July 28. The maximum term for the offence is 10 years and an indeterminate fine.

Callely, who was a member of Fianna Fáil, served as a Minister of State for health and transport between 2002 and 2005 and was later appointed to the Seanad, where he remained until 2011.

Callely was arrested in January 2012. He denied any wrongdoing and told fraud squad gardaí he didn’t recognise the documents.

The court heard Callely has since repaid all the expenses aside from €580.21 referred to in count six.