'Master of deception' from Limerick jailed for selling non-existent Six Nations tickets

He was also given a prison sentence recently for conning prominent horse trainer, Michael Hourigan, while posing as a representative of RTÉ and Horse Racing Ireland

Patrick Sheedy has 91 previous convictions in total and is currently serving a three-and-a-half year sentence at Portlaoise prison.

A judge has jailed a serial fraudster for duping a 79-year-old rugby club officer to part with €7,610 for 48 Six Nations rugby match tickets that didn't exist.

At Ennis District Court today, Judge Mary Larkin jailed Patrick Sheedy (aged 52) for nine months for the three separate deception offences and said that an aggravating factor in the case is Mr Sheedy’s level of recidivism where he already amassed 63 previous convictions under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act.

Mr Sheedy - who has 91 previous convictions in total - is currently serving a three-and-a-half year sentence at Portlaoise prison and before today was not due for release until May 2023.

However, as Mr Sheedy of Cliona Park, Moyross, Limerick, committed his latest offences in December 2019 and January 2020 while on bail, the nine-month jail term is consecutive to the three-and-a-half year jail term he is currently serving.

Mr Sheedy’s life of deception first came to the notice of gardaí 32 years ago in February 1989 where he appeared as a 19-year-old at Limerick District Court on a forgery charge.

"A clever man with a chronic gambling addiction”

In relation to his three latest offences where Judge Larkin imposed a nine-month jail term, Mr Sheedy posed as a person involved with World Rugby and duped an officer at London Irish Amateur rugby club, Peter Whiteside to pay the €7,610 for the non-existent tickets.

Mr Whiteside emigrated from Ireland to England over 55 years ago in 1965 and Judge Larkin said that the injured party “had been left high and dry and humiliated by Mr Sheedy’s actions”.

Judge Larkin stated that Mr Whiteside "was a perfectly innocent person who thought he was purchasing tickets for his rugby club”.

The judge said that Mr Sheedy "is a clever man and was well able to extract the monies”.

Solicitor for Mr Sheedy, Daragh Hassett, told the court that Mr Sheedy has “a chronic gambling addiction” and was doing what he did to fulfill his need to get money to gamble.

Mr Hassett told the court: “Your phone is a very dangerous device at the best of times and if it has a gambling App you can place bets on horse racing in Macau, football in Argentina, you name it, you can gamble on it at the click of a button and Mr Sheedy succumbed to that temptation”.

Mr Hassett said that Mr Sheedy "would whittle away his money on gambling on every type of thing you could imagine”. Mr Hassett also said that, as Mr Sheedy is in prison, there is no prospect of the monies being repaid.

Mr Hassett stated that Mr Sheedy "is a very bright man. That is half his problem. He has an ability to pull off things like this on unsuspecting people and his firm commitment from now is to channel his energies and intellect in a good way and stop this cycle of prison, getting out, getting treatment and unfortunately re-offending.” 

Mr Hassett said that behind all of this, Mr Sheedy is a decent man but has been unable to deal with his addiction.

Mr Hassett told the court that Mr Sheedy knows that prison is the best place for him right now. He also stated that Mr Sheedy "feels very sorry for the injured party who is an ex-pat who emigrated and has been heavily involved in rugby and who trusted Mr Sheedy in relation to these tickets”.

"Compulsive fraudster"

Prior to today, Mr Sheedy’s most recent court appearance was at Limerick Circuit Court in April of this year where he received a six-month jail term for conning prominent horse trainer, Michael Hourigan, into loaning him a horse box which he then stole.

The court heard that Mr Sheedy phoned Mr Hourigan on May 25, 2017, claiming to be a representative of RTÉ and Horse Racing Ireland.

Mr Sheedy - described at that court hearing as a "compulsive fraudster" - told Mr Hourigan that he was working on a TV project and required a horse box for filming around Ireland.

Mr Sheedy’s appearance concerning the Six Nations tickets at Ennis District Court is not his first appearance at that court.

In 2016, Judge Patrick Durcan described Mr Sheedy as "a master of deception" when imposing a six-month jail term for a scam where Sheedy defrauded a friend of €4,170.