A Kilkenny investment broker who defrauded clients of over IR£250,000 has been given a six-year suspended sentence by Judge Michael White at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Patrick Blanchfield (39), formerly of Dean St, Kilkenny, and who now works as a debt collector in England, committed the offences between 1986 to 1994.

He pleaded guilty on January 20th, 2003 to 16 representative charges of fraud between 1986 and 1994 and has been on bail since then awaiting sentence while paying compensation monthly.

Judge White was told then that financial institutions paid £115,685 compensation to some of the injured parties while £90,000 was outstanding to the remaining victims.

Defence counsel Mr Hugh Hartnett SC told the hearing that Blanchfield had €60,000 (£51,000) compensation in court and would pay stg£2,000 monthly to make up the balance.

Mr Hartnett told Judge White last April that Blanchfield had lodged a further €57,000 with his solicitors since the January 2003 hearing and would have the balance paid by last month.

Mr Hartnett said Blanchfield had not intended to defraud anyone but had ended up "stealing from Peter to pay Paul" due to his involvement in greyhounds and a gambling problem.

Detective Garda John Bergin told prosecuting counsel Mr Paul Coffey SC he received 39 complaints totalling approximately £1,073,000 against Blanchfield in 1994. Blanchfield had closed his business at that time and left the jurisdiction.

Det Garda Bergin told Mr Coffey (with Mr Dominic McGinn BL) he first received a complaint from a man who cashed in his Hibernian Insurance life policy worth over £7,000 and authorised Blanchfield to pick up the cheque for him. The injured party's name was signed on the back of the cheque and it was lodged in Blanchfield's own account on November 4th, 1994. The injured party later found out from Hibernian that the cheque had been cashed by Blanchfield.

A woman gave a bank draft worth £45,000 and a cheque for £48,000 to Blanchfield in November 1992 to invest for her in First National Building Society. She was given an account book which she kept updated until her account reached £130,600. Det Garda Bergin said she gave her account book to Blanchfield but when she returned to his office two weeks later his business had closed.

Another man gave £80,000 compensation from a road traffic accident to Blanchfield to invest but Blanchfield cashed £30,000 of it in June 1986 and another £36,000 in November 1986.

Det Garda Bergin said a woman gave an £8,000 bank draft to Blanchfield in November 1993 which, he told her, he was investing in a tax-legitimate offshore account. She signed an order for the withdrawal of this money in August 1994 but when there was no sign of it, she contacted Blanchfield who told her he was waiting for a cheque from Dublin.

When she contacted him again, he told her account was being investigated for tax irregularities.

Blanchfield told her he could give her £4,000 in cash which she could pick up from his office. The woman received this money but the balance was still outstanding to her in January 2003.

Det Garda Bergin said another man gave Blanchfield £10,566 to deposit in Irish Nationwide in August 1990. He was given an account book by Blanchfield and returned to his office every so often to record the interest paid to him. When Blanchfield's office was closed, the man found out only £100 remained in his account although he had not authorised any withdrawals.