No jail for Cork man who defrauded farmer out of his €20k savings

When questioned, the defendant admitted the money had been in his account, but he claimed that he did not know where the money came from, the court heard

When the 82-year-old farmer gave 60-year-old James O’Driscoll a cheque for €2,400 he accidentally added a zero and the defendant took advantage of that by lodging it all to his account and spending it. File photo

A judge has described as deplorable the actions of a man who befriended a bachelor farmer before spending over €20,000 of his savings.

When the 82-year-old farmer gave 60-year-old James O’Driscoll a cheque for €2,400 he accidentally added a zero and the defendant took advantage of that by lodging it all to his account and spending it. The victim did not realise something was wrong until his own cheques began to bounce and he found out that there was nothing left in his account.

Judge Sinead Behan imposed a three-year sentence but suspended it on the basis that the accused, who has paid €2,000 compensation already, would gather a further €6,000 at a rate of €50 per week until that is paid in full. That is to consist of €2,000 more to the elderly man and €4,000 to the bank who effectively bore the cost of the crime.

Judge Sinead Behan said: “It is a very serious case. This man abused a position of trust of an 82-year-old bachelor farmer who possibly lacked support otherwise.

Garda Jonathan McCarthy said O’Driscoll did odd jobs for the victim for which he was paid. In this case, the defendant asked him for €2,400 to help him with his son’s confirmation and the farmer agreed to help him, writing out a cheque for that amount which O’Driscoll lodged into his Permanent TSB account.

However, while the farmer had filled out the written part of the cheque correctly stating the amount was €2,400, he had not filled out the correct figure in the box for the amount to be written numerically and rather than writing €2,400 had written €24,000.

Some €24,000 was lodged into O’Driscoll’s account and within a month O’Driscoll withdrew some €21,600, withdrawing first €10,000 in a bank withdrawal and then €5,000 in another bank withdrawal with the remainder being withdrawn via an ATM, Garda McCarthy testified.

When questioned, Mr O’Driscoll admitted the money had been in his account, but he claimed that he did not know where the money came from.

Garda McCarthy said: “He kept stating that he did not know where the money came from. he said ‘It was in my account — I don’t know where it came from but once it was there, the temptation was to spend it — if I had my time over again, I wouldn’t have spent it.’” 

Permanent TSB had re-imbursed the elderly farmer for the €21,600 but the bank was at a loss for this amount as O’Driscoll had not repaid any of the money to them.

'Egregious breach of trust'

60-year-old James O’Driscoll of Upper High Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork, was sentenced for defrauding the 82-year-old of the money between March 14 and April 19, 2022, contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2021.

Garda McCarthy told the court that O’Driscoll had a total of 68 previous convictions including one for manslaughter, assault, public order, possession of drugs for sale or supply and road traffic matters and theft with his most recent conviction being one for simple assault in 2015.

Defence barrister Mahon Corkery said: “This was a fairly egregious breach of trust and that is acknowledged by my client.” He said O’Driscoll had expressed remorse and that the guilty plea was of some significance in the case as it spared the elderly farmer having to come to court.

Mr Corkery said the accused had left school at the age of 11 as he was left at the back of the class, virtually ignored, resulting in limited employment opportunities. He began abusing alcohol when he was just 13 and got involved in criminality.