Man receives three year sentence for 'accident' scam

A Co Louth man has been jailed for three years for his role in a £151,000 insurance fraud conspiracy arising out of what was described as "a dramatic accident that never happened" in 1996.

James Murphy, aged 44, a lorry driver of Main Street, Castlebellingham was found guilty by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on December 19 last on day 15 of a trial.

He was convicted by a 10-1 majority following eight hours of deliberations.

Judge Joseph Matthews said that while Murphy might have been "the heart and soul" of the conspiracy, he was not the brain of the operation which was masterminded by a Longford garage-owner Michael Byrne, who is serving five years imprisonment for this and other related crimes.

Murphy was convicted of conspiracy to defraud Guardian/PMPA (now Axa) by falsely pretending a traffic accident occurred at Annaduff, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim on January 28, 1996 between a Scania tractor unit driven by him and towing a lowloader which allegedly carried another Scania unit and a 'Hyster' forklift and a Rover car driven by a Co Offaly taximan.

The jury heard that Murphy conspired together with others including Byrne of Sligo Road, Longford, owner of Michael Byrne Motors; Michael McDonald, Rathcor, Riverstown, Dundalk, a director of Portfleet Ltd, owners of the Scania transporter driven by Murphy; and Jeremiah O'Donovan, of Fairview Terrace, Birr, who was the Rover driver.

O'Donovan, aged 44, a married father of two, of Fairview Terrace, Birr, who pleaded guilty before the trial to his role in the conspiracy, is due for sentence on February 23.

Murphy, who is originally from Gaultimsland, Carlingford and has had addresses at Francis St, Dundalk and Strand Road, Annaggasan, and in Newry, Co Down was jailed for six years in 1989 by the Special Criminal Court on explosives charges arising of having unlawful possession of nitro-benzine.

McDonald was jailed for 30 years in England for subversive activity relating to the 'Real IRA' in May 2002 along with two others.

Murphy received £15,000 from Guardian/PMPA for personal injuries arising of the alleged accident, while O'Donovan received £18,000 for the alleged loss of a new Rover car.

Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC (with Ms Caroline Cummings BL), for Murphy, told Judge Matthews her client had a bank draft for €5,000 in court as partial compensation.

He was unable to raise any more at this time because he was in custody but could offer more if at liberty to find work.

Judge Matthews said he took the offer of €5000 into consideration as a mitigating factor in arriving at a three years sentence as a fair and just one.

He directed that the €5,000 should be paid to Axa. Portfleet Ltd had its claims for losses in connection with two Scania tractor units settled for £101,000.

Other payments were made to legal advisors dealing with the claims bringing the total of some £151,000.

The jury heard lenghty evidence that crashed vehicles were purchased by the conspirators in Ireland and England and used to deceive insurance inspectors.

Another vehicle recovered in a garda raid at McDonald's home was found to have been stolen from a Customs and Excise shed in Rosslare.

Mr George Birmingham SC (with Mr Sean Guerin BL), prosecuting, told the jury at the start of the trial that it was "a carefully hatched plot, which was quite elaborate, well thought out and well planned"..

The jury heard it was contended that O'Donovan was driving from Birr to Sligo to see friends when he lost control of the Rover, 95W506, on an oily surface at Annaduff, causing him to career in the direction of the Scania, 95D33639, driven by Murphy with both allegedly finishing down an embankment.

O'Donovan claimed the Rover was "written off" and got £18,000 on March 26, 1996.

Portfleet claimed the Scania was written off also and got £101,000 in August 1996 as compensation for the vehicle, as well as for recovery of it and alleged hired replacement vehicles.

The same Scania, 95D33639, was stopped 18 months later at a garda checkpoint in Rooskey, Co Roscommon being driven by McDonald's brother-in-law, Mr Eamonn Woods, of Forkhill, Newry.

Evidence was also given that the Rover car had been 'bought' by Byrne, who instructed it be invoiced in O'Donovan's name, but was later given back unscratched to the vendor without being paid for and was then sold to a company in Wexford.

Experts told the jury that neither the Rover nor the Scania had ever been in an accident up to the time both were examined, long after the fake Annaduff accident.

McDonald and his company, Portfleet, produced forged invoices to Guardian/PMPA which alleged they had to hire two Scanias from M & S Plant Sales, Goshen Cross, Edgeworthstown after the fake accident, and that M&S had recovered the so-called "crashed" vehicles from the Annaduff scene.

The jury heard evidence that none of this happened, that the documents were not signed by the person whose signature was purported to be on them, and were not on official M&S notepaper.

The alleged "hired" Scanias were actually owned by another company who would loan them from time to time to Mr Al Manning of M&S.

The driver of one of them which was stopped by gardaí at the time it was supposed to be "hired" to Portfleet told the jury he didn't work for Portfleet and had never heard of that company at the time.

The jury heard evidence also from Leitrim Co Council workers who were called to the Annaduff scene and who didn't seen a Scania in the ditch with its load.

It was revalued in the trial that crashed Scania units were bought as salvage in England and reregistered in Ireland using false names and addresses, and that Byrne bought a crashed Rover car which had gone into the Grand Canal near Shannonbridge, Co Offaly.

These were used to show to insurance assessors to support the fraudulent claims made.

Consulting engineer, Mr Denis Woods, who did an analysis of the claims, said that the recovery of all these vehicles from the scene would have been an enormous task involving severe traffic restrictions and heavy specialist removal equipment.

He also told the jury that an accident as claimed would have almost certainly have caused the death of the Rover driver.

When gardaí searched McDonald's home at Rathcor, Riverstown, Dundalk in January 1998, a Scania unit was recovered which was found to have a false registration plate and to have been stolen from the Customs and Excise shed at Rosslare Port in 1995.