Sting operation nabbed online fraudster
A 51-years-old man created a false identify and several fake documents to open a bank account and obtain goods on the internet while growing cannabis plants in a Salthill apartment.
Louis Rohr, a German national who lived in Galway for 10 years, with a last address at Apartment 1, Estoria House, Nile Lodge, before moving to the Pottery Studio, Castlecove in Co Kerry last year, pleaded guilty at Galway District Court to six charges of fraud and deception.
The court heard from his solicitor, Olivia Traynor, that this was a complex case with complex issues going on in her client's life.
Rohr pleaded guilty to making a false Electric Ireland bill in the name of Jonathan Spencer, with the intention of using it to induce another person to accept it as genuine at the apartment in Estoria House, Nile Lodge between January 1 and February 20 last year.
He pleaded guilty to inducing a member of staff at Bank of Ireland, Eyre Square, to open a bank account in the name of Jonathan Spencer by producing false documents to him on January 10 last year.
He pleaded guilty also to inducing a member of staff at 3G Ireland in Dublin to accept as genuine a false German ID card and a false Electric Ireland bill in the name of Jonathan Spencer on February 20 last year.
He further pleaded guilty to having a false Irish driving licence in his possession on February 24 last year and to having a false EU identity card in his possession on the same date also.
Rohr finally pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis plants in the apartment on the same date.
Garda Paul McNulty gave evidence that 13 other similar charges of theft and fraud were being withdrawn by the State following the plea by the accused to the remaining six charges.
He said Rohr ordered a €549 mobile phone from the 3G Ireland website on February 20 last year, using the name Jonathan Spencer.
He entered into a 24-month contract with 3G and provided a fake German identity card and a fake Electric Ireland bill, both in the name of Jonathan Spencer, to the company as proof of his name and address.
The company had reservations about the documents provided and contacted the Gardaí in Galway. A sting operation ensued and when a courier arrived at the apartment to deliver the phone, Gardaí were waiting and Rohr admitted to them that he had made up the character, Jonathan Spencer.
He was arrested and his apartment searched. Gardaí seized a large number of fake identity cards, driving licences and two potted cannabis plants which were growing under heated lamps in the apartment’s sitting room.
Garda McNulty explained Rohr had entered a Bank of Ireland account number on the contract he had signed with 3G, using the name Jonathan Spencer. On further investigation bank staff confirmed a fake driving licence and Electric Ireland bill had been used by the accused to open the bank account under the false name.
Defence solicitor, Olivia Traynor said her client was born in Germany, moved with his family to the US when he was five and came to live in Galway in 2005.
He was a university graduate and this, she said, was a complex case but before she could get any further, Judge Mary Fahy interrupted and said she would be seeking a pre-sanction probation report on Rohr before proceeding to sentence.
She agreed it was a complex case which required such a report.
Ms Traynor said there was a lot going on in the background with a lot of medical issues involved.
“I could be here for a hour explaining things so a report would be beneficial,” she added.
Judge Fahy directed Rohr, who now resides in Kerry, to give his mobile number to a probation officer in Galway and she then asked for a pre- sanction probation report on the accused, to be prepared by the probation service in Kerry.
She adjourned the matter to October for the report and told Ms Traynor she could resume her submissions to the court then.