Commissioner must reverse decision to sack garda accused of theft

In May 2020 Commissioner Drew Harris, using Section 14 of the Garda Síochána Act, wrote to Garda Adrian Ivers to say he had made a “determination” that the garda should be sacked. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

The Court of Appeal has ruled the garda commissioner Drew Harris must reverse a decision to sack a garda who was alleged to have stolen a Bluetooth speaker from a confiscated vehicle. 

The court granted an appeal by Garda Adrian Ivers against a High Court decision that the commissioner acted within his power in deciding to sack Garda Ivers.

The issue centres on an incident in which a car was seized in Cootehill, Co Cavan, in January 2020 following suspected drug driving. 

Garda Ivers was on duty at Cootehill station and was told by the arresting guard that the car’s lock was not working. 

Garda Ivers checked the car to see whether anything in it could have been stolen and he retrieved a Bluetooth speaker which he brought into the station. 

He had earlier collected his daughter from school and was due to bring her home, but she spotted the speaker, and “she asked him to play music on it by connecting his mobile phone to it”, according to the court’s ruling.

Garda Ivers took the speaker home in his own car and when he returned to work the seized vehicle had been towed away.

“Garda Ivers says he forgot about the speaker in his car thereafter until two days later, when he cleaned his car and noticed the speaker," the court was told.

He decided to phone the guard who had arrested the vehicle’s owner but before he could do that he received a call from an inspector asking him to attend at the station, but she, the inspector, did not say why. 

Following that, he rang the original arresting garda to get the details of the car owner so he could return the speaker. 

Garda under investigation for theft

He then attended the garda station where he was told he was under investigation for theft. He was later suspended.

A disciplinary investigation was initiated, but this was paused when the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) began a criminal investigation into the incident. 

In May 2020, while the GSOC investigation was ongoing, Commissioner Harris, using Section 14 of the Garda Síochána Act which allows, in certain incidents, to bypass the formal disciplinary procedures, wrote to Garda Ivers to say he had made a “determination” that the garda should be sacked.

Subsequently, a file was sent to the DPP by GSOC but the outcome was a decision not to prosecute. 

By then, Garda Ivers had launched his High Court action to prevent his dismissal.

The ruling delivered from the Court of Appeal this week stated that the commissioner had acted outside the powers because “the conduct in question is genuinely in dispute”, Judge Seamus Noonan ruled on behalf of the three-judge court.

The Irish Examiner understands that a separate disciplinary investigation into Garda Ivers has been completed and a recommendation made to the commissioner, but the outcome of that process was also paused until this appeal had been heard.