Businessman jailed over insurance fraud

A Longford businessman was tonight sentenced to two years in jail for staging a road accident between a truck and a car.

Aloysius Manning, (aged 57), from Newtown Forbes, was found guilty by a jury last month of conspiracy to defraud the Guardian PMPA company (now AXA) after he took part in the incident at Anaduff, Drumsna, Co Leitrim, in April 1994.

Judge Joseph Matthews imposed the two-year jail sentence despite a plea from Manning’s wife of 35 years that such a decision would leave their family penniless and homeless.

He said that despite the testimony from Manning’s very loving and supportive wife and nine other character witnesses, he could not ignore the fact that the crime involved conspiracy with others in the preparation of a criminal offence.

“I have a duty to let it be known from this court that a crime where there is planning and calculation is a grave matter because it can have an effect on the community by increasing (insurance) premiums whereas otherwise they would remain at a lower level,” he said.

Manning was found guilty last month of conspiring with the Longford garage owner Michael Byrne, and another man, Gerard Smith to stage the 1994 accident.

He was the driver of a truck and a low loader carrying a Caterpillar excavation machine which collided with a Ford Sierra car late at night.

The car had been placed on the wrong side of the road around a bend by Mr Smith, who later confessed his role in the scam to gardaí. He was given the Probation Act at the district court while Mr Byrne was given a five-year jail sentence after being convicted of another insurance scam and admitting to six other similar offences involving staged accidents.

At the circuit criminal court Detective Sergeant Kevin Gatley, from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation said the insurance company had paid out £70,438 (€89,437) in connection with the accident.

This included a cheque for £56,000 which was issued to Mr Manning but which he deposited in a bank account linked to Michael Byrne.

Detective Sergeant Gatley said no direct link had been found to show that Manning had received any of the cheque. “That’s not to say he didn’t receive anything,” he said.

The court heard that although insurance investigators believed the truck would have been rendered immovable if it had suffered the damage claimed, it had been driven to a site a mile away by Mr Manning after the accident.

He told gardaí: “It looks bad for me doesn’t it?” when he was arrested in connection with the incident in 1996.

The courtroom was packed full of supporters of Manning, a prominent businessman who owns four companies in the plant and machinery hire, quarrying and construction sectors.

There were character references from 10 people across all sectors of the local community, with doctors, priests, retired gardaí and senior officials from Longford county council.

His parish priest Father Hugh Turbett described him as a decent, honourable and hardworking human being who had given great employment to up to 60 people.

The Mayor of Longford county council Frank Kilbride said he had known Manning for 30 years. “I always found Al and the rest of his family to be 110% honest, decent and hardworking people,” he said.

Michael Denning, the retired deputy principal of a local community school, told the court of how Manning had refused to take any money when his son reversed a tractor into the businessman’s car while working one summer.

“He had the opportunity on that occasion to seek compensation, substantial compensation, but that’s not part of his ethos, he’s not that type of person,” he said.

He added that he and the rest of the local community had been shattered by the news of Manning’s conviction.

There were other character references from local bank managers and the managing director of a spare machinery parts company in England, who had flown specially from Stockport to attend the hearing.

But the most powerful testimony came from Manning’s wife Elizabeth, who said her husband had worked very hard to build up his business and to look after their four children. “He has been a fantastic husband, a wonderful father and a true friend,” she said.

She told the court that his businesses had always done well until last August when one of them, Manning Brothers Contracts, had gone into liquidation with debts of €4m and the loss of 82 jobs.

She said it had been caused by a dispute with Meath County Council over a contract and had forced her and her husband to remortgage their €450,000 family home.

She begged Judge Matthews not to sentence her husband to a term in jail. “We will be homeless and penniless if Al is sentenced,” she said.

Judge Matthews said he accepted Manning was a person who had done much in his life and helped many. But he said he felt he had no option but to impose the sentence of two years’ imprisonment due to the fact that it was not a crime of sudden impulse.

“Time does not diminish the gravity of this matter or the calculated manner in which it was conceived and executed,” he said.

Manning was refused leave to appeal but indicated to the court through his lawyers that he would be taking his case to the Court of Criminal Appeal.