Roofer scammed €3k from woman, 84
John McCarthy Jr, aged 21, with an address at the Lane, College Farm, Newbridge, Co Kildare, was convicted at Dublin District Court in January of theft from Kathleen Byrne on November 3, 2014.
Yesterday the judge was furnished with a pre-sentence probation report on McCarthy, and a victim impact statement from Ms Byrne was also handed in to court by Garda John Doran.
Judge John Brennan said he needed time to consider the reports and the victim’s statement. He adjourned the case until later date this month. McCarthy was remanded on continuing bail.
During the trial, the pensioner had said she was intimidated and brought by the roofer to her local Post Office to withdraw the cash from her savings.
An engineer also told the court the work McCarthy said he would carry at her Raheny cottage was not needed.
The court heard that after McCarthy left the woman’s home, he claimed he went to a building supplier which was 15-minute drive away but after two hours he had still not returned.
Judge Brennan has said it was a “quite despicable” act; Ms Byrne, he added, was a vulnerable 84-year-old woman living on her own and had €3,000 extracted from her in circumstances where no documentary evidence such as receipts or quotations were provided to her which he imagined would be normal for responsible businesses.
The court heard Ms Byrne lived in a thatched cottage with a flat roofed extension. The defendant had initially quoted her €120 to clean the roof and she let him do the work.
After about 20 minutes McCarthy came down and told her “the whole roof is broke you can see the boards and the felt is gone”. When they got back to her house, some of his crew were still there. Ms Byrne said he told her the work had been completed and he left.
