Carlow fraudster jailed for taking advantage of elderly man

A Carlow resident, who was part of a team of fraudsters that made a 81-year-old man pay over €14,000 for work to his roof that was worth €1,000, has been jailed for 18 months.

Thomas Coffey, 31, of Angler’s Walk, Carlow Town, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing €4,800 from Sinclair Downey at his Dublin home in September 2013.

His 19 previous convictions include four for theft.

Garda Colleen Doherty told Cormac Quinn BL, prosecuting, that Coffey and his accomplice, Patrick O’Brien, called to the man’s home looking for further payment on unauthorised work to the man’s roof.

They claimed that Mr Downey owed a further €4,800. They then drove the man to the nearest bank and waited with him to withdraw the cash from an ATM.

Coffey was arrested at his then Kerry home in Ballyspillane, Killarney on November 4, 2013. He later claimed in interview that he had been asked to collect the money on behalf of someone else.

When gardaí informed him that an examination of his mobile phone showed a call to Mr Downey’s landline that September, Coffey accepted his role.

O’Brien, 32, of Convent Road, Abbeyfeale, Limerick, was jailed for four years last July after he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing €14,200 from Mr Downey.