A former garda who stole thousands of euros from colleagues and an elderly woman has been sentenced to three years in jail.
David Foran (30) responded to a burglary at an elderly woman’s home and found she had hidden nearly €2,000 in her bedroom. He later returned to steal the cash. He also collected about €3,000 from his Garda colleagues to organise events which he then used to pay his own debts.
“A meaner crime is difficult to find”, Judge Mary Ellen Ring commented as she sentenced Foran.
She said Foran’s breach of trust was more important than the money he stole. She noted the Garda motto is to protect and serve, but he had done neither for the then 82-year-old woman.
“He violated her safety to take money she had worked for 40 years to be entitled to,” Judge Ring said. “This violation took place while he was wearing the Garda uniform. This undermines the trust elderly people have in gardaí. I can only hope that trust can be regained.”
Judge Ring said Foran exploited his relationship with his colleagues to take their money so he could alleviate his own problems. She noted he was deeply in debt and that his take home pay was as low as €25 a week after debt repayments.
However, she pointed out there is help available for those in debt within the gardaí and in wider society and that Foran did not avail of this help.
She accepted that Foran pleaded guilty, avoiding the need for the elderly woman to give evidence. She also noted his previous good record and his psychiatric problems before suspending the final six months of the sentence.
Foran gasped and held his head in his hands as sentence was handed down.
Foran of Kinsale in Cork and formerly stationed at Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to the theft of €1,950 from woman in Phibsboro between October 10th and 17th, 2009.
He also pleaded to two counts of stealing money collected from his colleagues and one count of using a false instrument at Jury’s Hotel, Limerick, all between October and November 2009.
Det Insp Francis Sweeney told prosecuting counsel Michael Bowman BL that Foran became a garda in 2007 and was stationed at Fitzgibbon Street Garda station when he responded to a burglary at the home of the woman. Burglars had broken into the sheltered housing where she lived but left without taking anything.
When Foran arrived with a colleague the woman showed them the pillow cases where she kept her money. She received a pension from An Post where she worked all her life and kept the money at home as she did not trust banks.
The woman left for Cork the next day for a week during which time Foran returned. He gained access to the property by telling the management he was continuing his investigation and while there he took the money. When she discovered the money was missing, the woman phoned gardaí who began an investigation.
The investigating garda then passed the case to Foran who said he would take care of it. However, he never contacted the woman again. Suspicions about Foran were raised after the woman wrote a letter of complaint about the lack of a follow-up.