Man found guilty of insurance fraud

Retired garda, Mr Desmond McGonigle, (aged 58), of Knockvicar, Boyle, Co Roscommon was found not guilty by the jury and was discharged from the court by Judge Matthews on the application of defence counsel, Mr Peter Finlay SC (with Mr Sean Gillane BL).

The jury’s final decision in the case came following almost 11 hours deliberations on day-16 of the hearing and after it had spent two successive nights in a hotel.

Its 10-1 majoirty guilty verdict on Murphy came after almost eight hours deliberations on day-15 and found Mr McGonigle not guilty following some three hours further deliberation on d-16.

Murphy was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the Guardian / PMPA (now Axa) by falsely pretending a traffic accident occurred at Annaduff, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim on January 28, 1996 between a Rover car and a Scania tractor unit driven by him and towing a lowloader which allegedly carried another Scania unit and a ‘Hyster’ forklift..

The prosecution claimed that both men conspired together and with others including businessman Michael Byrne of Sligo Road, Longford, owner of Michael Byrne Motors; Michael McDonald, Rathcor, Riverstown, Dundalk, a director of Portfleet Ltd, owners of the Scania transporter driven by Murphy; and Jeremiah O’Donovan, of Fairview Terrace, Birr, who was the Rover driver.

O’Donovan (aged 44), a labourer, pleaded guilty before the trial to his role in the conspiracy and was remanded for sentence also on January 29, 2004.

The jury heard Murphy received £15,000 from Guardian / PMPA for personal injuries arising of the alleged accident, while O’Donovan received £18,000 for the alleged loss of a new Rover car.

Portfleet Ltd had its claims for losses in connection with two Scania tractor units settled for £101,000. Other payments were made to legal advisors dealing with the claims bringing the total of some £151,000.

Murphy, who is originally from Gaultimsland, Carlingford and has had addresses at Francis St, Dundalk and Strand Road, Annaggasan was jailed for six years in 1989 by the Special Criminal Court on explosives charges arising of having unlawful possession of nitro-benzine.

McDonald was jailed for 30 years in England for subversive activity relating to the ‘Real IRA’ in May 2002 along with two others.

The jury was told that Byrne was married, the father of three and a "successful businessman", and that he was "one of the main organisers if not the main organiser" of the conspiracy. Byrne is serving a six year sentence following his conviction in relation to similar offences and his guilty plea in relation to the Annaduff crime

Mr George Birmingham SC (with Mr Sean Guerin BL), prosecuting, told the jury it was "a carefully hatched plot, which was quite elaborate, well thought out and well planned"..

The jury heard that it was contended by the conspirators that O’Donovan was driving from Birr to Sligo to see friends when he lost control of the Rover, 95W506, on an oily surface at Annaduff, causing him to career in the direction of the Scania, 95D33639, driven by Murphy with both allegedly finishing down an embankment.

O’Donovan’s claimed the Rover was "written off" and he got £18,000 on March 26, 1996. Portfleet claimed the Scania was written off also and got £101,000 in August 1996 as compsensation for the vehicle, as well as for recovery of it and alleged hired replacement vehicles.

However, some 18 months later the same Scania, 95D33639, was stopped at a garda checkpoint in Rooskey, Co Roscommon being driven by McDonald’s brother-in-law, Mr Eamonn Woods, of Forkhill, Newry, Co Down.

Evidence was also given that the Rover car had been ‘bought’ by Byrne, who instructed it be invoiced in O’Donovan’s name, but was later given back unscrathced to the vendor without being paid for and was then sold to a company in Wexford.

Experts told the jury that neither the Rover nor the Scania had ever been in an accident up to the time both were examped, long after the fake Annaduff accident.

McDonald and his company, Portfleet, produced forged invoices to Guardian /PMPA which alleged they had to hire two Scanias from M & S Plant Sales, Goshen Cross, Edgeworthstown after the fake accident, and that M&S had recovered the "crashed" vehicles from Annaduff.

The jury heard evidence that none of this happened, that the documents were not signed by the person whose signature was purported to be on them, and were not on official M&S notepaper.

The alleged "hired" Scanias were actually owned by another company who would loan them from time to time to Mr Al Manning of M&S.

The driver of one of them which was stopped by gardai at the time it was supposed to be "hired" to Portfleet told the jury he didn’t work for Portfleet and had never heard of that company at the time

The jury heard evidence also from Leitrim County Council workers who were called to the Annaduff scene and who didn’t seen a Scania in the ditch with its load.

It was revaled in the trial that crashed Scania units were bought as salvage in England and re-registered in Ireland using false names and addresses, and that Byrne bought a crashed Rover car which had gone into the Grand Canal near Shannonbridge, County Offaly.

These were used to show to insurance assessors to support the fraudulent claims made.

Consulting engineer, Mr Denis Woods, who did an analysis of the claims, said that the recovery of all these vehicles from the scene would have been an enormous task involving severe traffic restrictions and heavy specialist removal equipment. He also told the jury that an accident has claimed would have almost certainly have caused the death of the Rover driver.

When gardai searched McDonald’s home at Rathcor, Riverstown, Dundalk in January 1998, a Scania unit was recovered which was found to have a false registration plate and to have been stolen from the Customs and Excise shed at Rosslare Port in 1995.