Fine, suspended sentence in €4.4m heating scam

A retired Mayo businessman and chairman of the Connacht Oil Promotion Federation who was involved in a west of Ireland home-heating fuel price-fixing scam has been given a six-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay a €15,000 fine.

Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said JP Lambe had participated fully in this criminal activity and was an experienced business man. She said that "without his talent, acumen and knowledge this kind of distortion could probably not have functioned at any significant level".