Man thanked garda official with €500 for false visa, court hears

A Chinese immigrant has told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that he paid €500 to a former Garda National Immigration Bureau employee "to thank him" for issuing a fraudulent visa to his girlfriend.

John Kennedy (aged 69), Willow Crest, Trees Avenue, Mount Merrion, County Dublin has pleaded not guilty to six counts of receiving bribes of €500 as well as a bottle of wine and a meal voucher between December 2002 and January 2003 in return for issuing fraudulent visas.