Car crash deliberately set up

A car crash that was deliberately set up for a fraudulent compensation claim did not cause enough damage at first and one car was seen reversing and crashing a second time into another vehicle before gardaí were called to the scene, a court has heard.

Married couple Patrick Browne, aged 52, and Eileen Browne, aged 49, of Ballybeg West, Buttevant, Co Cork, were sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday for their part in a scam that saw them net a total of over €22,500 in insurance claims.

Judge David Riordan said, “There was clearly a breach of trust here. Courts must be conscious of the making of false claims. They are not victimless crimes.

“As the ad said some years putting their hand in your pocket. This is a case in point. This is effectively what they were doing,” Judge David Riodan said.

The full amount of the money falsely claimed was paid back yesterday by the two accused who borrowed the money from family and friends. Patrick Browne was given a two-year suspended sentence and Eileen Browne will do 240 hours of community service if the probation service find her suitable.

The Brownes were the first people to be sentenced arising out of the garda investigation, which was code-named Operation Nascar, co-ordinated by the Organised Crime Unit at Anglesea Street Garda Station.

The operation investigated alleged fraudulent insurance claims made as a result of what Sergeant Noel Madden described in evidence yesterday as orchestrated traffic accidents.

The staged accident at the centre of this case occurred at Monastery Hill, Rochestown, Cork, at 9.30pm on December 6, 2011.

Gardaí covertly videoed the incident taking place and Sgt Madden described it yesterday.