A retired Co Roscommon garda and a Co Longford woman who defrauded an insurance company by claiming they were involved in separate car accidents have been jailed for six months by Judge Frank O'Donnell at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Desmond McGonigle and Jacqueline Kinlan were both sentenced to three years but Judge O'Donnell suspended the last two years and six months because she had brought to court the sum of €12,000 and he was offering €9,000 as compensation.
The court heard that Kinlan received £8,840 from a claim submitted to the Guardian PMPA insurance company after she alleged she was involved in a car accident in March 1994.
The court also heard that McGonigle received €7,151 after alleging he was in car accident in December 1995. The evidence was that both were driving the same car in the separate accidents but an assessor from the Guardian PMPA had declared it as a write-off following the first crash.
Kinlan (36), Ballagh, Newtown Forbes, Co Longford, had pleaded not guilty that on diverse dates between March 1st, 1994, and January 1st, 1995, she conspired with others to defraud the company by falsely pretending that a genuine car accident had occurred on March 17th, 1994.
McGonigle (58), Cleen, Knockvicar, Boyle, had denied that on diverse dates between December 1st, 1995, and May 31th, 1996, he had conspired with other people to defraud Guardian PMPA by falsely pretending that a genuine car accident had taken place on December 21th, 1995.
Judge O'Donnell described it as a "sad case" because Kinlan was a married mother of two young children, and father-of-five McGonigle, who has suffered from ill-health for some years, had now tarnished an otherwise impeccable 31-year career in the Garda.
The court heard Kinlan's brother-in-law, Michael Byrne, who owned a large garage proprietorship in Co Longford, was the central figure in this and a number of other similar conspiracies that took place at this time.
He was currently serving a five-year sentence for car insurance-related fraud.