Man serving 10-year prison sentence convicted for using false documents to secure mortgatge
A man who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for possession of a large amount of lethal weapons has been jailed for 18 months after he tried to secure a mortgage using bogus documentation.
Johnathon Harding (46) of Mc Neill Court, Sallins, Kildare came forward to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on signed pleas of guilty from the District Court.
He admitted using three false payslips from January 2016, February 2016 and March 2016, a false bank statement covering August 2015 to March 2016 and additionally a false payslip and false bank statement on dates between October 2014 and April 2016, at the Bank of Ireland on Drimnagh Road, in Walkinstown, Dublin.
Harding was sentenced to ten years in prison in January this year after he pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to possession of nine revolvers, four pistols, a sub-machine gun, an assault rifle and various ammunition magazines on January 24, 2017, at a unit in Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, Co Dublin.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt had suspended the final year of the term.
Judge Melanie Greally jailed him for 18 months after she heard that he provided Bank of Ireland with false documentation, including pay slips, a p60 form and a bank statement, to support an application for a €260,000 mortgage.
Harding was asked to attend at the bank with the original documentation but never did so and a few days later he withdrew his loan application stating that he had been successful elsewhere.
Judge Greally said the case before her was “clearly of a very different character” to that before the Special Criminal Court. She noted that there was no actual loss to the bank and that he had co-operated with the garda investigation.
“The practice of trying to secure a significant amount of cash on the back of false documentation must be taken seriously,” the judge said before she sentenced Harding to 18 months in prison. Judge Greally ordered this should be served concurrent to the term he is currently serving.
Garda Robert Lambert agreed with John Gallagher BL, defending, that it was “a fairly unsophisticated fraud in the manner in which it was executed”.
He accepted that a bank official immediately spotted that the bank statements supplied didn't appear right.
“It didn't require microscopic analysis. It didn't even pass the sniff test. He was immediately able to identify it as false,” Mr Gallagher suggested to Gda Lambert.
Gda Lambert told Sinéad McMullen BL, prosecuting that concerns were raised in relation to the authenticity of the documentation Harding had supplied to secure a mortgage application for €260,000 on April 11, 2016.
It was later confirmed that the three payslips, a p60 stating he had earned €84,195 gross salary for the year and an AIB bank statement were all bogus.
Gda Lambert confirmed that Harding's home was searched but nothing of consequence was found. He was arrested in June 2017 and made full admissions.
Harding has eight previous convictions including the one from the Special Criminal Court and a six year term for possession of drugs for sale or supply handed down in 2004.
