A CIRCUIT Court judge has called on Galway county councillor Michael Fahy to "act with honour" and resign his seat on Galway County Council following his conviction by a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday for an offence under the Larceny Act of obtaining €7,055 from the local authority by false pretences.
"Fraud by a public representative attacks the very essence of our democracy and erodes public trust in our elected representatives," Judge Michael White told Fahy yesterday afternoon.
"While the court does not have the power to disqualify you as a councillor, I hope you act with honour and resign your seat following your conviction by a jury of your peers."
Judge White then sentenced Fahy to 12 months in prison, suspending the final four months. The judge said it was the court's decision that Fahy had already served the custodial portion of the remaining sentence and he told him he was "free to go".
He imposed a €30,000 fine and gave him three months to pay, warning him that he would serve three months in prison in default of payment. The four-month part of the sentence was suspended on condition Fahy enter into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for two years.
Fahy of Caherduff, Ardrahan, in south Galway, had denied five charges involving fraud, false accounting and attempting to make a gain for himself or cause a loss by deception to Galway County Council, during his six-day trial before a jury of nine men and three women.
The charges centred on the disputed erection of 1.6km of fencing on Fahy's farm by Byrne Fencing Ltd, for which invoices had allegedly been submitted for payment to the council in 2002 and 2003.
In summing up the evidence, State prosecutor Conor Fahy had told the jury that while a council-approved community involvement scheme (CIS) was widening a public road leading to the accused man's home and had contracted Byrne Fencing Ltd to erect fencing along the public road, the accused had got the contractor to erect 1,629m of fencing and five gates on his farm.
The approved CIS scheme had only erected 877m of fencing along the public road. "It was a case of the tail wagging the dog," he said.
The barrister told the jury: "What is staring you in the face is a case of dishonesty on a grand scale in his dealings with Galway County Council by an elected official of that institution."
Defence counsel Bernard Madden SC had likened Fahy to a little boy in a sweetshop and that when he was caught getting sweets for himself and his pals he had been sent to his room for a year by his father. He said the boy got out of the room after seven months but the father sought to punish him further.
He asked the jury to remember his client had already served seven months in prison while awaiting an appeal of a 12-month prison sentence imposed on him at his first trial last year.
Fahy had been convicted by a jury at the Circuit Criminal Court in March of last year of seven charges brought under various sections of the Larceny, Theft and Fraud Offences Act.
At the time Judge Raymond Groarke imposed a 12-month prison sentence along with a €75,000 fine on Fahy.
After spending the night in a hotel and six hours' deliberation the jury yesterday returned an 11 to one majority verdict of guilty on the first charge, which related to him obtaining by false pretences €7,055.15 for Byrne Fencing Ltd from Galway County Council.
The jury found Fahy not guilty of four other charges.
In passing sentence, Judge White said an aggravating aspect of the case was "the serious breach of trust" displayed by Fahy when, as an elected representative, he had set out to defraud the very body to which he had been elected and had caused very serious difficulties for the officials of that body who had acted in good faith with him.
Leave to appeal the sentence was refused.