A moneylender allegedly held a gun to the head of a man and told him he would kill him because he owed him €70.
Miroslaw Klucsak appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court, in Co Donegal, charged with making threats to kill and demanding money with menace.
The defendant, who denied the charges, told the court he ran a legitimate business paying for people’s grocery shopping and then charging them for the transport.
He collected the money outside the local post office in Letterkenny every Wednesday and Thursday when members of the Polish community collected welfare payments.
Mr Klucsak is charged with threatening to kill Leszek Majewski because he did not have the €70 he was owed.
Judge John O’Hagan was told that on April 4th, 2013, Mr Klucsak met Mr Majewski outside the post office and demanded his cash. Later that morning, Mr Klucsak is alleged to have visited the Letterkenny home of Mr Majewski and his wife, Barbar. Mr Majewski claimed the accused pulled a gun from beneath his coat and put it to his head.
“He came in looked around and was nervous. He took a gun from inside his jacket – he grabbed me by my jacket and put a gun to my head. He said ‘Give me the money back or I will kill you.’ I told him shoot me and he then put the gun hard into my head,” he said.
Ms Majewski ran to a local shop and asked the proprietor to call the gardaí.
Garda Darren Carter said he called to the home of the accused and asked about the alleged incident and if he had a weapon. He said the only evidence of a weapon was a cardboard box for a pellet gun.
Mr Klucsak said it belonged to a friend who had moved to Dublin. He denied threatening the defendant with a gun and said he had simply asked for his money back.
The case continues.