An investigation into complaints of Garda malpractice in Cavan-Monaghan has found changes made to electronic records on the force’s Pulse system were “consistent with an attempt to excuse the failure to prosecute” people suspected of criminal offences.

The changes, relating to offences such as driving without tax or insurance, were made after details of whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe’s complaints were sent to local Garda management.

Sgt McCabe had complained that Pulse records showed gardaí had “corruptly” failed to pursue prosecutions in cases where evidence was available.

The commission, established by the last government to investigate Sgt McCabe’s claims, found that in many cases the Pulse system had been subsequently updated to show that no offence took place.

Professional

It also found that Pulse files later amended to claim that motorists had produced documents late were not backed up, as they should have been, by changes to another filing system, the Driving Licence Insurance Protection System.

The commission, chaired by High Court Judge Kevin O’Higgins, delivered its report to the last government but it has not yet been published.

A copy has been seen by The Irish Times.

It found that former minister for justice Alan Shatter, former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan and the Department of Justice handled the complaints made by Sgt McCabe in a professional and appropriate manner “at all times”.

Mr Shatter and Mr Callinan left their jobs in 2014 after a number of justice and policing controversies.

Though Sgt McCabe is criticised in parts of the report, the findings of the commission about the non-prosecution of offences and the altering of Garda records bear out many of his complaints.

The commission described the issues raised by the Pulse changes as “troubling” and “unsatisfactory” but it also found that the later updating of the Pulse records was not corrupt as Sgt McCabe alleged.

The whistleblower had made a number of complaints to senior gardaí about various matters, including the non-prosecution of a series of minor offences, many of them involving motoring and road traffic offences. Senior officers investigated the complaints and reported to Sgt McCabe at a meeting in 2010 that many of his complaints would not be pursued. He then said he had further evidence of serious wrongdoing and produced over 1,000 records from the Pulse system.

He had printed the records off the system to back up his claim that nothing was being done about hundreds of alleged offences in Cavan and Monaghan.

These records were then seized by gardaí but more than 600 were returned to Cavan-Monaghan. It was after their return that many of the changes to the Pulse system were made, the commission found.

Dossier

Sgt McCabe later submitted a dossier of complaints to the Department of the Taoiseach, in which he alleged that Pulse entries were being “corruptly” changed to “cover up” a failure to prosecute.

The commission examined Sgt McCabe’s claims and the 180 examples from the Pulse system that he supplied to the Taoiseach’s department. Its investigations included a detailed examination of the Pulse system, and of supporting or corroborative systems.

“The vast majority of the complaints made by Sergeant McCabe . . . are borne out, at least in part . . .,” it said. “In a number of [motoring] incidents the member of the public is recorded as having admitted the offence. However, the examined printouts reveal a failure to prosecute in many cases.”

The inquiry also said it was possible that valid documents were produced subsequently but not recorded or else “the relevant narratives were being updated to give the impression that prosecutions were not initiated” because people had produced documents “when they had not in fact done so”.