Cork fraudster to be resentenced after judge slammed early release from prison

Woman was given suspended sentence after judge said there was no point in sending her to jail.

The Director of Public Prosecutions argued that the one-year fully suspended sentence imposed on Emma Fehily, aged 37, at the Circuit Criminal Court was unduly lenient.

The Court of Appeal will re-sentence a convicted fraudster after hearing that a judge gave her a suspended sentence because he was unhappy with the "complete and utter joke" of her early release on previous charges.

Jane Hyland BL, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, argued before the three-judge court that the one-year fully suspended sentence imposed on Emma Fehily, aged 37, at the Circuit Criminal Court was unduly lenient. She said Judge Sean O'Donnabhain had said that the basis for the non-custodial sentence was that he had previously sentenced Fehily to 30 months and in another case to eighteen months but she served only five months of the first sentence and one month of the second.