A man convicted of three counts of possession of stolen property and one count of deception has been sentenced to two years and four months with the final nine months suspended, following a lengthy Circuit Court hearing.
John Alex Kane (50) of Cartron, Granard, Co Longford, appeared before Judge Kenneth Connolly at Longford Circuit Court last week to face three charges of possession of stolen property, one charge of deception, one charge of criminal damage, and three counts of forgery.
On January 10th 2023, Mr Kane pleaded guilty on the basis of recklessness to the three counts of possession of stolen property, relating to a New Holland TM155 tractor, a John Deere 6220 tractor, and a Toyota Hilux jeep on dates between January and April 2018, in Rathcronan, Granard.
He also pleaded guilty to a count of deception between November 1st, 2018, within the state, whereby he induced a man to purchase a John Deere tractor for €25,000.
A nolle prosequi was entered with regard to a count of criminal damage, while the three counts of forgery relating to false documents were marked taken into consideration.
Det Gda Brendan Lynn, giving evidence to the court, said that on February 27th, 2028, a blue Toyota Hilux, was stolen from a farmer who was tending to a sick animal with a vet in Enniscorthy.
On March 14th, 2018, on foot of a search warrant, Gardaí discovered a blue Toyota Hilux on the premises of Kane’s of Granard with the registration VEZ4568. There was another black Hilux nearby which had no registration plates on and the chassis number removed.
Mr Kane gave a voluntary caution statement giving an account of how he came to be in possession of the Hilux.
“He explained that a male from Enniskillen who was not known to him drove into his garage and offered the sale of the blue Toyota Hilux,” said Det Gda Lynn.
Mr Kane said he was provided with an invoice from an auto business in Northern Ireland. He said the registration was on it when he purchased it and denied doing any work on it.
A victim impact statement from another farmer in the UK regarding the New Holland TM155 tractor said the theft of the tractor “couldn’t have come at a worse time because it was stolen in the middle of harvest season”.
The farmer received an insurance payment of £20,000, but said this “didn’t reflect the value of the tractor”. He also had to improve his security in general and the loss of the tractor was “a major inconvenience on the farm at the time”.
The farm manager of a donkey sanctuary in the UK gave a victim impact statement explaining that the loss of the John Deere tractor in November 2017 was a huge inconvenience to the sanctuary.
Passing judgment, Judge Connolly stated he was “not at all satisfied” with any of the explanations Mr Kane gave to Gardaí with regard to how he came into possession of the vehicles.
“I have no doubt he’s a very hardworking man, but I suspect if one is involved with vehicles from the age of 14 or 15, one is an expert at 50 years old,” he said, stressing that Mr Kane should have been able to carry out the necessary checks on the vehicles.
Turning to sentencing, Judge Connolly noted that Mr Kane was charged with possession of stolen goods – not with theft or handling stolen goods.
“But as Mr O’Higgins pointed out, if we didn’t have people willing to be in possession of stolen property, we would not have thieves,” he said.
Mr Kane is due to reappear before Judge Connolly on July 30, when the committal warrant will be executed and his prison term will begin.
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