Sentencing of former FF councillor on theft charges adjourned

Sentencing of a former Fianna Fáil councillor convicted of theft when working as a financial advisor has been adjourned to allow a judge consider a detailed psychiatric report on the man.

Gary O’Flynn (39) with an address at Hayfield Drive, Castle Court, Whitechurch, Co Cork was convicted last month of 13 counts of obtaining sums totalling €1,000 by deception.

Det Garda Michael Horgan told Cork Circuit Criminal Court how gardaí were alerted by builder Eric Higgins over the theft of monies he had paid into bank accounts nominated by O’Flynn.

Det Garda Horgan explained that O’Flynn had set up a company with a business partner called Debt Assist Ireland to help people in difficulty with financial institutions.

They contacted Mr Higgins who was in financial difficulty and he came to see O’Flynn who charged him €50 for a consultation and offered to restructure his debts with two banks.

O’Flynn arranged for Mr Higgins to pay €40 a week to one financial institution and €22.50 a week to another with both sums to be paid into a bank account nominated by O’Flynn.

Initially, the money was paid into an account at AIB Bank South Mall in Cork but when O’Flynn left Debt Assist, he nominated a Bank of Ireland account in Blackpool.

However in January 2012, Mr Higgins received solicitors’s letters from both financial institutions to whom he owed money, saying that they had received no payments.

He contacted O’Flynn who said he was no longer involved in that type of business and referred him to solicitor John Henchion who advised him to contact the gardaí.

Between December 2009 and January 2012, Mr Higgins, who suffered two strokes during the entire ordeal, paid a total of €6,272 to O’Flynn, said Det Garda Horgan.

Since O’Flynn’s conviction last month, gardaí had received a cheque from him for €6,272 in compensation for Mr Higgins who was in no position to refuse the offer, he added.

Det Garda Horgan said that O’Flynn had made no effort between 2012 and this year to make reparation to Mr Higgins and when he was arrested, he did not assist gardaí in their inquiries.

The garda investigation into the matter was made more difficult by the fact that O’Flynn and his family made complaints to GSOC about every garda involved in the case, he said.

Det Garda Horgan said that it was his belief that these complaints were designed to frustrate the investigation into the complaint against O’Flynn by Mr Higgins.

O’Flynn had three previous convictions for public order offences including possession of a knife arising out the same incident for which he was fined and received a suspended sentence. His father, former Fianna Fáil Cork North Central TD Noel O’Flynn took the stand to apologise to Mr Higgins for all the distress that his son had caused him by his actions.

He pleaded for leniency for his son, whom he said had “crashed” when studying to become a solicitor but he later resumed his studies and qualified a solicitor in 2004. He also qualified as a finanical advisor but they noticed a change in his personality in 2009 when he began to act irrationally and he was diagnosed with a serious depressive disorder.

Mr O’Flynn said he believed his son needs continuues treatment for his depressive disorder and he was on a suicide watch in Cork Prison after he was remanded in custody for sentence.

“We ask as a family to show clemency to Gary and not impose a full custodial sentence,” said Mr O’Flynn adding they believed he would be better rehabilitated by receiving treatment.

O’Flynn himself took to the box to apologise to Mr Higgins “for any pain” he may have caused him and he hoped the payment of €6,272 would atone in some way for his actions.

He said that his family had suffered as a result of all the media coverage of the case but Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin interrupted him to take issue with him over the comment.

It was not the media who were responsible for any distressed suffered by O’Flynn’s family but he himself and his actions in taking money from Mr Higgins, said Judge Ó Donnabháin.

“I have so much remorse for what I’ve done - if I could travel back in a time machine and make things right, believe me, I would, “ said O’Flynn.

O’Flynn asked Judge Ó Donnabháin not to jail him, saying while on remand in prison he nearly had a breakdown because he could not access his medication quickly enough.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said he wanted time to study a very complex and detailed psychiatric report and he remanded O’Flynn in custody for sentence next Thursday.