By Conor Kane
Tipperary goalkeeper Darren Gleeson has been given a three-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence after admitting an offence of obtaining €10,000 by deception from an elderly man in 2013.
All-Ireland winning Tipperary goalkeeper Darren Gleeson has admitted obtaining by deception €10,000 from an elderly man over four years ago.
Mr Gleeson, who is due to line out for the defending All-Ireland champions in their championship qualifier match against Westmeath this weekend, pleaded guilty at Nenagh Circuit Court this morning to a breach of section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
He was due to go on trial before Judge Thomas Teehan and a jury but his barrister John O'Kelly SC indicated at the outset of the court sitting that a jury would not be required.
Mr Gleeson (36), of Shesharoe, Portroe, Co Tipperary, was charged with two counts of stealing a total of €32,000 from a Timothy Heenan (80) in 2013, and two alternate counts of obtaining the same monies by deception.
He pleaded guilty before the jury panel to one count of obtaining €10,000 by deception.
Justin Dillon SC, for the State indicated that this plea was acceptable to the DPP subject to the facts of the other charge, relating to deception being put before the court. He said that, in due course, the State would enter a "nolle prosequi" in relation to the theft charges.
Darren Gleeson was Tipperary's starting goalkeeper when they beat Kilkenny in last year's All-Ireland senior hurling final and was a substitute when they won against the same opposition in 2010.
He has also won six Munster championship medals, an All-Star award and a National Hurling League medal.