Father in €30k child maintenance arrears sent to the cells over Spain trip

Man told the court Barcelona trip 'had hardly cost me anything' as he was staying with a relative who had also paid for the flight

The court heard that days before the man’s trip to Barcelona, he had told a court that he had no money to pay maintenance towards his arrears.
Picture: iStock

A judge sent a father, €30,000 in child maintenance arrears, to the cells after finding his “credibility is shot" following the production of Facebook photos in court of a trip he took to Barcelona.

At the family law court in Ennis, Judge Mary Larkin told the man that his credibility "has been completely and absolutely destroyed”.

Judge Larkin told the man: “You have been telling me you can’t afford to breathe and then you are off in Barcelona having a good time — that is not the conduct of a man who can’t afford to live.” 

The judge told the court that the father was barely verbal in the witness box "and was uttering and stuttering".

He was trying to convince me in the witness box that he was almost incoherent and that there was a want in him upstairs, but there was no want upstairs in him in that photograph from Barcelona.

Just before lunchtime, Judge Larkin said “take him down to the cells” and said she would decide how long the man would be committed to prison over being in breach of a court order concerning the child maintenance arrears, unless he delivered a proposal to address the arrears.

Judge Larkin made her comments after Pamela Clancy, solicitor for the children’s mother, produced in court a colour photocopy from the man’s Facebook page showing photos from a trip he took to Barcelona from late last year.

Ms Clancy said that days before the man’s trip to Barcelona, he had told a court that he had no money to pay maintenance towards his arrears.

Ms Clancy stated that the man was €30,100 in arrears by January 15.

Under cross examination from Ms Clancy, the man told the court that the Barcelona trip “had hardly cost me anything” as he was staying with a relative who had also paid for the flight.

The man admitted that he didn’t mention the planned foreign holiday when he was in the witness box days before travelling.

Judge Larkin ordered the father’s release from the cells in the courthouse just after 6.10pm after he produced €6,000 for the mother of their two children under 18.

He was able to produce the money after getting two loans from relatives.

The man is currently unemployed, seeking work, and Judge Larkin said he is “highly employable and well qualified” and was earning €6,000 per month in his last job.

Before sending him to the cells earlier, Judge Larkin stated: “You had convinced me or you had tried to convince me that you didn’t have a penny in your accounts ... I don’t accept what you are saying. I don’t accept that you do not have the capacity to pay your debts.” 

She told him she was satisfied that “you have not been forthcoming or honest and that you have not been a credible witness”.

Judge Larkin told the court that the only time that he has seen the man smile was in the Barcelona photos produced in court.

Solicitor for the man, Aisling Carr told Judge Larkin that it was her understanding that her client acted the way he did in the witness box as he was under stress.

Judge Larkin adjourned the case for six months.