Garda sergeant pleads guilty to passport racket

A Garda sergeant has pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to four charges connected with a false passports racket.

42-year-old Finbarr Hickey from Mary Street North, Dundalk has admitted charges of forging two passport application forms and to uttering a forged passport application.

Sergeant Hickey has been suspended from duty since his arrest in February last year.

Today in court, he admitted four charges connected to a false passport racket, including forging two passport applications on March 4 1995, one on December 2 1995, and to uttering a forged application form at the Passport Office in Dublin.

He has been remanded on continuing bail until the conclusion of the trial of another man from the North, who faces five charges.

James Fox, 41, of County Armagh, is charged with conspiring with Hickey to obtain false passports - his trial starts this afternoon.