Jail sentence for court worker who hid summons

A courts service employee who hid a drink driving summons for a taxi driver who stood to lose his job has been given an 18-month sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Sorcha O’Meara (aged 30) felt sorry for drink driver Derek Behan (aged 47), who was also given an 18-month sentence for perverting the course of justice.

Behan took up an offer from a man who cold called him to say he could make the summons "go away" for a fee.

O’Meara, of Clonshaugh Close, Clonsilla, pleaded guilty to concealing a courts summons addressed to Derek Behan and entering into an agreement to pervert the course of justice by preventing charges being processed correctly between May 27 and July 30, 2004 at Áras Uí Dhálaigh, Inns Quay, Dublin 7.

Behan, of Moylaragh Views, Balbriggan, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice by entering an agreement to interfere with summons on dates unknown between December 17, 2003 and July 30, 2004.

Judge Katherine Delahunt said Behan and O’Meara "corrupted the system" and that their offences were "an attack on the core of the criminal justice system".

"Since the foundation of the State, both public and civil servants have served the country. When this is attacked, people lose their trust in the system," she said.

Judge Delahunt sentenced them both to 18 months in prison but suspended the last nine months of the term.

She noted that Behan had €1,000, which she accepted was a "gesture of remorse" but said she believed that the "funds would be better used by his children" and did not accept the cheque into court.

Detective Inspector Pat Lordon told Mr Shane Costelloe BL, prosecuting, that Behan was stopped by gardaí in December 2003 who observed him driving in an erratic manner. He was arrested and a number of road traffic offences, including drunk driving, were preferred.

Garda Alan McDevitt applied to the summons office to have summons issued for the District Court in relation to these offences. When the case was called in the District Court in April 2004, it transpired that there was no court record of the summons and the case did not go on.

Det Inspt Lordon said gardaí applied for the summons to be reissued for a new court date, but again on that date there was no record of the court summons in court list.

Gardaí coincidentally stopped a man driving under the influence on the Malahide Road in June 2004 and during a search of his car a set of summons for Behan were found.

This was highly unusual and gardaí undertook an investigation. This man has yet to come before the courts.

Det Inspt Lordon said as part of this investigation they arranged to speak to O’Meara who worked in the court service office in the Four Courts complex.

O’Meara told gardaí that she had been approached by an acquaintance who had told her that a taxi driver friend of his was in danger of losing his job because a drink driving summons had been issued against him.

She told gardaí she felt sorry for the taxi driver, whom she had never met, and entered into an agreement to remove the summons. She denied that she had been paid for this.

Behan told gardaí that after he had been caught drink driving, he received a phone call from a man who told him that if he was prepared to pay €1,250, the summons could "go away".

Behan said he handed over the money in the car park of a pub and was shown the summons. When the summons were reissued he contacted the man who undertook to do it again.

Det Inspt Lordon agreed with Ms Caroline Biggs BL, defending Behan, that Behan had since received a two-year driving ban and fine for the 2003 road traffic offences.

Mr Remy Farrell BL, defending O’Meara, said her "motivation was borne of empathy with Derek Behan and this is the first time they have sat side by side".

He said O’Meara, a mother of three, was facing "professional oblivion" after being suspended from her job in the courts services where she had worked for seven years with an unblemished record.

Mr Farrell said O’Meara had fully co-operated with the investigation, had no previous convictions and gardaí accepted she was unlikely to come to their attention again.

Ms Biggs said Behan was "a man acting completely out of character" in circumstances where he was in fear of losing his job and was under pressure to keep up maintenance payments for his three children after an "acrimonious break-up" with his wife.

Ms Biggs handed in numerous testimonials to Behan’s good character and said he also had an exemplary work record. She said he had co-operated fully with gardaí and had entered an early guilty plea.

She said he had since started a new business which is doing well and had some money in court which he had been saving to buy equipment for his company to offer as a token of remorse.