Pair admit car insurance scam

Two men defrauded Eagle Star Insurance of almost €30,000 by falsely claiming a BMW car was stolen and obtained another €25,000 for the same car by selling it on, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.

Eamon Shiel, aged 33, Fenswood, Lucan and Barry Murphy, aged 29, of Clonguane, Cappowhite, Co Tipperary pleaded guilty to defrauding €29,500 from Eagle Star Insurance by falsely pretending their BMW had been stolen.

The two men, who had bought the car in Carlow in May 2002 and reported it stolen in Swords, Co Dublin, in August 2002, also pleaded guilty to selling the car to another man in the same month for €25,000.

Ms Aileen Donnelly SC, for Murphy, told Judge Miriam Reynolds that he had mistakenly seen the insurance company as "not real people" and, therefore, his crime as "victimless".

Detective Garda Michael Killeen told prosecuting counsel, Mr Luan O Braonain BL, that Murphy had reported the car stolen at Swords Garda Station on August 9, 2002 and Eagle Star Insurance paid out €29,500 into his account.

Det. Garda Killeen said once the cheque was cleared Murphy immediately transferred the money from his account to Shiel’s.

He agreed with Ms Donnelly that the transfer had been made because Shiel was seen as the better "money manager" of the two.

The two men then sold the car to an employee of AIB who gave them a bank draft for €25,000 which he had obtained on finance from the bank.

Shiel and Murphy had bought another BMW car with the money they obtained and both cars were seized by gardaí following the investigation. When the two cars were sold later by AIB and Eagle, both companies were left at a loss as the value of the cars had gone down.

Det. Garda Killeen said the shortfall for Eagle Star is €15,020 and AIB incurred a loss of over €9,000.

Mr John Byrne BL, for Shiel, told the court that it had been his client’s intention to have the money in court to compensate the companies in full. He had, however, only become aware of the full amount outstanding late last month and had been unable to raise the €24,000 required.

Judge Reynolds remanded the two men on bail for mention on December 10 next to assess progress on the success of their efforts to raise the money before a sentence date is fixed.