A WEST Cork man who took advantage of a vulnerable elderly bachelor farmer should be ashamed of himself, a judge said.
James O’Driscoll (59) of Upper High Street, Drimoleague, appeared at Cork Circuit Criminal Court this week and pleaded guilty to dishonestly appropriating €21,600, between March 14th and April 19th 2022.
‘Shame on you for doing what you did, abusing an elderly vulnerable man,’ said Judge Sinead Behan. Garda Jonathan McCarthy of Schull Garda Station said O’Driscoll befriended the elderly farmer after he sought permission from the man to allow his ponies graze on his land.
O’Driscoll then approached the farmer and asked him for €2,400 to help him with his son’s Confirmation and the farmer wrote 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 numeric figure in the box, and rather than writing €2,400, he had written €24,000.
The €24,000 was lodged into O’Driscoll’s account and within a month O’Driscoll withdrew €21,600, withdrawing first €10,000, and then €5,000, with the remainder being withdrawn via an ATM, said Gda McCarthy.
The elderly farmer discovered what happened when cheques came back from his Bank of Ireland account, stating that there were insufficient funds to honour them, and so he reported the matter to gardaí.
Gardaí traced the missing money to O’Driscoll who admitted the money had been in his account, but he didn’t know where it came from.
Permanent TSB reimbursed the farmer for €21,600, but Permanent TSB was at a loss for this amount, as O’Driscoll had not repaid any of the money to them.
The court heard O’Driscoll has 68 previous convictions, including one for manslaughter, but also ones for assault, public order, drugs possession, road traffic matters and theft. His most recent conviction was for assault, in 2015.
The garda agreed O’Driscoll’s guilty plea spared the elderly farmer having to attend court, and he also accepted that O’Driscoll had expressed remorse.
He also agreed with the defence barrister that O’Driscoll was the primary carer for his 15-year-old autistic son and was ‘the only stabilising influence’ in his life.
He is also the primary carer for the couple’s three other children as his wife is the main breadwinner. Pleading for leniency, the barrister said his client had a very tough upbringing in a large family of settled travelers, often with no food and no heat and a lack of parental guidance.
He had left school at the age of 11 as he was left at the back of the class, ‘virtually ignored’ and was illiterate, so job opportunities were limited. He began abusing alcohol at 13, but he had since given up drink.
Judge Behan said the case merited a custodial sentence, but she noted that a probation report indicated that O’Driscoll was suitable and willing to carry out community service. She ordered O’Driscoll to pay Permanent TSB €50 a week and adjourned the matter to November 13th to allow him pay compensation, and see if any community service work was available.
