Man gets ten months for his role in Galway stolen car scam

In imposing a 10-month prison sentence on the defendant, Judge Mary Fahy remarked: “I don’t accept that anyone can be that stupid.”

David Simo (23), with an address at 207 Rosan Glas, Rahoon, had denied handling the stolen Peugeot 508 on dates between November 26 and December 4 last year. The Slovakian native further pleaded not guilty to inducing a man to lodge €800 into his bank account as payment for a bogus car engine on January 19 last year.

The Peugeot was stolen during the burglary of a house in Foxrock on November 26 2014, while its owner was in hospital. It was subsequently discovered in an estate on the Ballymoneen Road on December 4.

Detective Garda John Horkan told the court that there were false registration plates on it, but that the chassis numbers confirmed that it was the same vehicle.

Simo was identified as a suspect, and in a voluntary caution statement he claimed that he had not been suspicious when his colleague at a motor garage, a man he named as John Corcoran, offered to swop his car for the Peugeot at no extra cost. He admitted, though, that the vehicles were not of equal value.

Within a week he had sold it on to another man, Kevin, making ‘a few thousand’ in profit – although he could not recall for Gardaí the exact amount, nor what he had spent it on.

However, within days he was contacted by Kevin who said that the car had been seized by Gardaí.

Simo claimed that it was only at this point that he realised it may have been stolen.

“I wasn’t suspicious at the time as he (Corcoran) had told me that his friend had the log book, but had left it at home – we were friends at the time,” he told the court under oath.

“I asked him at least six times about it. Then he said that the friend had lost it and had applied for a replacement. I sold it because I was stuck for money.”

When asked by Inspector Mick O’Dwyer why he had not parked the car outside his home in Rahoon, Simo said he did not want his parents to know he had a car.

In a separate incident, the court heard that a man from Cavan had placed an ad on the Done Deal website seeking an engine for a 2008 Ford Mondeo.

He was contacted by a person by text, who claimed to have what he was looking for, and said that if €800 was lodged to an account in Simo’s name, that the part would be posted the following day.

The engine never materialised, and the seller could not be contacted. However, the injured party reported the matter to Gardaí, and the account was traced to the AIB branch at Lynch’s Castle, and from there to the defendant.

The State maintained that this ‘fraudulent transaction’ was the work of two people, and that Simo was equally culpable by the principle of ‘common design’.

However, he claimed that his friend, John Corcoran – accepted as the owner of the phone used in the transaction – had asked him to allow the payment, as he did not have a bank account of his own.

“He was living in a caravan, and I didn’t think he’d have been able to prove an address,” Simo said.

“I was only doing him a favour; he didn’t give me anything for it.”

The defendant said that he gave the money to Corcoran, although there was no proof of this.

Judge Fahy asked if he had requested the money to be returned, to which Simo replied: “He (Corcoran) said he was giving no money back.”

The defendant’s solicitor, John Martin, said that it was “quite plausible” that his client knew nothing about the transaction.

“It would have been quite stupid to use his own bank account when something was not right,” he said.

Judge Fahy did not agree, and concluded that Simo had been working in tandem with these other parties.

“The first thing he needs to do is break away from these people,” she added, before imposing a ten-month prison sentence, and a five year driving disqualification on him.

Recognisances were fixed in the event of an appeal, on condition that he does not drive any vehicle pending the outcome.