Jail for man who stole Loughrea farmers cheque.

Galway Bay fm newsroom - A man has received a partially suspended sentence of three years after pleading guilty to setting up bank accounts which were later used to lodge a Department of Agriculture cheque stolen from Albert Hynes, a farmer from Loughrea. Ibanda Nlanda , formerly of Rossmore, Ballyfermot, Dublin admitted providing false information when opening up two banks accounts. The 56-year-old Congolese national pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two accounts of providing false or misleading information at the Irish Nationwide Phibsboro and at the Bank of Ireland, Ballyfermot Road, Dublin. Judge Catherine Murphy suspended the last 18 months of the jail term on condition that Nlanda keep the peace for three years. She backdated the sentence to January last to take account of the time Nlanda has already spent in custody. Detective Garda Eileen O'Connor told Cormac Quinn BL, prosecuting, that before Christmas 2007 Albert Hynes, a farmer from Loughrea, Co Galway, was due to receive a cheque from the Department of Agriculture. When the cheque failed to appear he reported it and an investigation revealed that the cheque had been lodged into a Bank of Ireland account on January 2, 2008 and the money was later withdrawn during that month. Det Gda O'Connor said that Nlanda had not lodged the cheque himself or withdrawn the money but had opened up the bank accounts in another name. Mark Lynam BL, defending counsel said his client has health issues and will be on dialysis for the rest of his life unless he receives a kidney transplant. During a trial last May Nlanda pleaded not (not) guilty to possession of the stolen cheque payable to Albert Hynes and to stealing a cheque, the property of Mark Nicholson and to using a false instrument. The Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew these charges when Nlanda pleaded guilty to the other charges.