A Limerick-based garda has been found not guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice after allegations he fixed motoring offences for drivers.
Garda Thomas Flavin was acquitted of a total of 22 counts of allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice by a jury at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court following an eight day trial.
The jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on 17 of the charges. Earlier, the jury was directed by the trial judge, Colin Daly, to return not guilty verdicts in respect of five counts against Garda Flavin.
The garda, who had denied all of the charges, was supported in court throughout the trial by family friends and colleagues.
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Garda Flavin was arrested following an investigation by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI).
He was accused of knowingly entering false motor insurance details on the Garda Pulse computer records system, in an attempt to frustrate potential prosecutions against people for driving without insurance.
His trial heard the drivers involved were stopped at routine Garda checkpoints around the country and asked by the garda present to produce their insurance and licence details at a nominated Garda station within 10 days of the traffic stop.
All of the drivers involved nominated Rathkeale Garda station, and, later, when the investigating garda in each of the traffic stops carried out follow up checks of Pulse they were satisfied the details entered indicated that the driver in each case was insured.
However, the court heard some of the drivers were actually not insured and had been prosecuted in court after pleading guilty to driving without insurance.
On Thursday, Garda Flavin’s barrister, senior counsel Mark Nicholas, instructed by solicitor Dan O’Gorman, urged the jury to acquit his client of all of the charges and said there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
Mr Nicholas told the jury Garda Flavin was an exemplary garda who had served with dedication in Croom and Rathkeale, Co Limerick, for many years.
Mr Nicholas spoke of the “unique challenges” gardaí face in Rathkeale as opposed to other jurisdictions.
“People who live down here know it has an enormous population, transient, in and out at various times of the year.
“One policeman said (the population) quadruples and with that comes its own set of problems and own sets of vehicles – UK car registrations, UK insurance, some not insured, some not being entirely truthful," he said.
“We know that a certain number of times that people who were pulled up and stopped and asked for their documentation, produced bogus insurance certificates.”
The court heard evidence that people had provided certain documents at Rathkeale Garda station, where Garda Flavin was based at the time. However it was unclear who produced the documents nor was it clear what documents they produced.
Fiona Murphy SC, prosecuting, had alleged that the evidence would show that Garda Flavin had “sorted out” the uninsured drivers by inputting data into Pulse to try to frustrate prosecutions against them.
Ms Murphy had told the jury that the prosecution case was “a circumstantial case” with “no direct evidence”.
“Instead, the prosecution relies on indirect evidence,” she said.
She had argued that all of the relevant data entries into Pulse “were entered under the ID of Thomas Flavin”.
She alleged Garda Flavin knew the drivers were not insured and that he entered their details on to Pulse to ensure they appeared covered.
“Mr Flavin knew what he was doing, and he did so to ensure those people were insured (on Pulse) when they were not, in order to ensure there was no prosecution,” Ms Murphy said.
However, after deliberating for three hours and 21 minutes, the jury unanimously dismissed all of the allegations.
