Galway man avoids jail for Eddie Rockets fraud

Galway Bay fm newsroom – A former Galway schoolteacher who became addicted to online poker has avoided jail for defrauding an Eddie Rockets restaurant of €135,000. 74 year old John Carlos of Bolands Court, Gort, who was also a part-time accountant, appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. He pleaded guilty to forging signatures on cheques, altering amounts on cheques and stealing money from his former employer, Eddie Rockets franchise owner Peter Fortune, between 2005 and 2008. The court heard that John Carlos had been a highly-respected retired school teacher and accountant in Bray, County Wicklow until he became a “hopeless and deeply addicted gambler”. Senior Counsel for Carlos, Patrick Gageby, said his client's gambling has caused substantial fallout in his family and he is now separated from his wife of 27 years. Judge Mary Ellen Ring sentenced John Carlos to three years in jail but suspended it in full on condition that he keeps the peace for three years.