82-year-old forced to pay €17,500 for €400 job

An 82-year-old man, living alone, was inveigled into paying €17,500 to a workman for a job that cost no more than €400.

Yesterday, the culprit was jailed for what the judge described as a cruel crime.

Patrick O’Brien, aged 37, of 122 Ballyspillane, Killarney, Co Kerry, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, with half of it suspended, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.