Arsonist pleads guilty to fraudulent insurance claim

A 47-year-old man, who denied arson causing €200,000 to his own business but was found guilty by a jury, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of making a fraudulent insurance claim afterwards.

David Healy, of Tig na Mona, Rathankar, Passage West, Co Cork, denied a charge of arson at Munster Air Compressors — a company of which he was a director — at Kilbarry Cottages, Dublin Hill, Cork, on December 16, 2014.

A jury of 11 was unanimous in the guilty verdict returned after approximately two hours of deliberation last month. Healy was remanded in custody for sentencing yesterday.