Former Fianna Fáil TD and junior minister Ivor Callely has been released from Garda custody without charge after being questioned over allegations that he fraudulently claimed expenses for mobile phones on falsified receipts.
Mr Callely (53) was released from Irishtown Garda station shortly after midday, some 24 hours after he was arrested close to his home on St Laurence’s Road in Clontarf, north Dublin
He was questioned by members of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation on suspicion of alleged breaches of a section of the Theft and Fraud Offences Act, which prohibits the commission of fraud using “false instruments”.
If an offence of using false or fraudulent paperwork – known under law as a "false instrument" — were proven, it would carry a sanction on conviction of up to 10 years' imprisonment.
A file on the matter will now be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Mr Callely’s home and office were searched yesterday by gardaí as part of a planned operation.
In many Garda investigations into alleged white-collar crime, suspects often arrange to meet gardaí at a designated Garda station to be taken into detention for questioning. However, the desire on the part of the investigating detectives to search Mr Callely’s home and office meant the element of surprise was used.
The allegations Mr Callely was being questioned about centre on receipts he lodged with the Oireachtas over a number of years to support claims for mobile phones and telephone car kits over a number of years totalling some €3,000.
Some 18 months ago, a newspaper report following a Freedom of Information request revealed that a company on whose headed paper the receipts were lodged had ceased trading years before the dates on which Mr Callely claimed he availed of its services.
Mr Callely filed a series of invoices from Business Communications Ltd, which was based in Fairview, Dublin 3, to the Oireachtas to support a claim for €3,000 in mobile phone expenses between 2002 and 2006. Business Communications ceased trading in 1994.
The Garda investigation into the matter has been under way for over a year. It is trying to establish how invoices on the headed paper of a company that had ceased trading so long ago were used to generate expenses payments to Mr Callely.