A garda who accepted a £500 (€635) bribe from a man he arrested for drink-driving has been given a three-year suspended sentence and fined €3,809 by Judge Des Hogan.
Seamus Doherty (41), from Castlefield Lawns, Churchtown, Dublin, had pleaded guilty at the Circuit Criminal Court to corruption on December 23rd, 2000.
Judge Hogan said that the offence of corruption was serious in itself, but the fact that it was committed by a member of the Garda made it worse.
Doherty, a married father of two children, asked Mr John Tobin to give him £20,000 (€25,395) to avoid being prosecuted. Mr Tobin had told Doherty that he needed his licence for work purposes. Doherty subsequently settled for the much lesser sum of £500.
Mr Tobin talked the matter over with his wife and agreed to report it to gardaí. It was arranged that he would meet Doherty in the car park of a Terenure pub to pass over the money. When Doherty was handed the envelope, he was arrested by watching gardaí.
Judge Hogan said: "His career is now gone and I have no doubt that, at the age of 41, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for him to start again and make up lost ground. He had a gambling and an alcohol problem, but he is now getting to grips with that in a proper, structured way. There are mitigating factors in this case and he, as are all criminals, is entitled to the benefit of having them taken into account.
"He pleaded guilty and co-operated with the investigation. The law allows me to impose a mandatory fine and a sentence, and because of the nature of the offence, I propose to do both."
Mr Michael O'Higgins SC, for the defendant, told the court that his client had checked into the Rutland Treatment Centre. Evidence from Mr Christy Delaney, from the centre, was that he was responding well to treatment.
His job as a garda had been terminated some time ago.
Mr Padraig O'Neill, a school principal, said that both Doherty and his wife took an active part in the lives of their two children at his school and were very supportive. Both children were excellent students. Doherty also coached on a voluntary basis at the local GAA club.
Mr O'Higgins said his client was once an upstanding and well-respected member of society, but he was now a person with a criminal conviction and he had lost a lot of friends he had in the Garda.
A management job in a taxi company awaited him, but he had suffered greatly. In addition, the nature of the case would attract newspaper attention.