[Article] Man jailed for staging fake motor crash

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/6853645?view=Eircomnet

Man jailed for staging fake motor crash
From:The Irish Independent
Tuesday, 29th November, 2005

A LONGFORD businessman has been jailed for two years for his role in conspiring to defraud Guardian PMPA insurance company of over IR£70,000 by staging a fake accident in 1994.

Aloysius Manning (57), of Ballagh, Newtownforbes, was found guilty in October at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. He was convicted of conspiring with Michael Byrne of Michael Byrne Motors, Longford, and Gerard Smyth of Cloonglassney, Strokestown, Co Roscommon, to defraud Guardian PMPA, now AXA Insurance, of Ir£70,438 by falsely pretending that an accident happened at Annaduff, Drumsna, Co Leitrim, on April 10, 1994.

Judge Joseph Matthews thanked the 11 character witnesses for Manning, including his wife Elizabeth, his parish priest Very Rev Hugh Turbett, and the Mayor of County Longford, Cllr Frank Kilbride, who had all testified as to his good character.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Gately said Byrne was serving five years for this and other fake accident crimes. Smyth was previously given the Probation Act.

unkel

Judge Joseph Matthews thanked the 11 character witnesses for Manning, including his wife Elizabeth, his parish priest Very Rev Hugh Turbett, and the Mayor of County Longford, Cllr Frank Kilbride, who had all testified as to his good character

:rolleyes: honestly, your honour, he is an upstanding member of the community

Imposter

Victor wrote:

Judge Joseph Matthews thanked the 11 character witnesses for Manning, including his wife Elizabeth, his parish priest Very Rev Hugh Turbett, and the Mayor of County Longford, Cllr Frank Kilbride, who had all testified as to his good character.

Now if that read:

Without a hint of sarcasm, Judge Joseph Matthews thanked...

it would have been so much better.

ds20prefecture

I'm so shocked that this sort of thing goes on in my home town. Perhaps that's why we have a 20% loading on all types of insurance.....

MercMad

Does anyone know what they actually did ?

mike65

Look how fupping long it took to reach the courts! 11 years.

Still justice finally done. As for character references, thats a joke. If you defraud someone you're clearly very low.

Mike.

JohnCleary

MercMad wrote:

Does anyone know what they actually did ?

Im asking myself the same question

JohnCleary

mike65 wrote:

Look how fupping long it took to reach the courts! 11 years.

Still justice finally done. As for character references, thats a joke. If you defraud someone you're clearly very low.

Mike - While I agree with you in regards to 'look how long it took' ... He's certainly paying for it now! Bet he never thought hed see prision when he was holding all those wads of cash in his hand.

Oh and he'll be paying for it for the rest of his life.. No insurance company will ever touch him again (well, you know what I mean here.... Give him about a 1000% loading next time he wants a quote)

landser

JohnCleary wrote:

Im asking myself the same question

he and two other guys faked a car accident in roscommon. As far as I remember, there was a retired Garda involved as well. THe accident never happened, yet this guy claimed off the other. The Garda had "investigated" the crash.

The reason it took so long to get to the criminal stage was that the civil part had to be completed first. that took a long time to get to court initially because of the fraud investigation by the insurance company. the case ran, in full, before the High Court and was dismissed.

This will hopefully start happening more and more often. However, the will has to be there on the DPP side. It is pretty hard to convict in these matters, even where a civil claim has been dismissed. The point with Manning was that one of his "witnesses" bottled as far as i remember and that lead to the prosecution following dismissal.

mike65

Heres a better report from iol

Businessman jailed over insurance fraud
28/11/2005 - 18:12:39

A Longford businessman was tonight sentenced to two years in jail for staging a road accident between a truck and a car.

Aloysius Manning, (aged 57), from Newtown Forbes, was found guilty by a jury last month of conspiracy to defraud the Guardian PMPA company (now AXA) after he took part in the incident at Anaduff, Drumsna, Co Leitrim, in April 1994.

Judge Joseph Matthews imposed the two-year jail sentence despite a plea from Manning’s wife of 35 years that such a decision would leave their family penniless and homeless.

He said that despite the testimony from Manning’s very loving and supportive wife and nine other character witnesses, he could not ignore the fact that the crime involved conspiracy with others in the preparation of a criminal offence.

“I have a duty to let it be known from this court that a crime where there is planning and calculation is a grave matter because it can have an effect on the community by increasing (insurance) premiums whereas otherwise they would remain at a lower level,” he said.

Manning was found guilty last month of conspiring with the Longford garage owner Michael Byrne, and another man, Gerard Smith to stage the 1994 accident.

He was the driver of a truck and a low loader carrying a Caterpillar excavation machine which collided with a Ford Sierra car late at night.

The car had been placed on the wrong side of the road around a bend by Mr Smith, who later confessed his role in the scam to gardaí. He was given the Probation Act at the district court while Mr Byrne was given a five-year jail sentence after being convicted of another insurance scam and admitting to six other similar offences involving staged accidents.

At the circuit criminal court Detective Sergeant Kevin Gatley, from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation said the insurance company had paid out £70,438 (€89,437) in connection with the accident.

This included a cheque for £56,000 which was issued to Mr Manning but which he deposited in a bank account linked to Michael Byrne.

Detective Sergeant Gatley said no direct link had been found to show that Manning had received any of the cheque. “That’s not to say he didn’t receive anything,” he said.

The court heard that although insurance investigators believed the truck would have been rendered immovable if it had suffered the damage claimed, it had been driven to a site a mile away by Mr Manning after the accident.

He told gardaí: “It looks bad for me doesn’t it?” when he was arrested in connection with the incident in 1996.

The courtroom was packed full of supporters of Manning, a prominent businessman who owns four companies in the plant and machinery hire, quarrying and construction sectors.

There were character references from 10 people across all sectors of the local community, with doctors, priests, retired gardaí and senior officials from Longford county council.

His parish priest Father Hugh Turbett described him as a decent, honourable and hardworking human being who had given great employment to up to 60 people.

The Mayor of Longford county council Frank Kilbride said he had known Manning for 30 years. “I always found Al and the rest of his family to be 110% honest, decent and hardworking people,” he said.

Michael Denning, the retired deputy principal of a local community school, told the court of how Manning had refused to take any money when his son reversed a tractor into the businessman’s car while working one summer.

“He had the opportunity on that occasion to seek compensation, substantial compensation, but that’s not part of his ethos, he’s not that type of person,” he said.

He added that he and the rest of the local community had been shattered by the news of Manning’s conviction.

There were other character references from local bank managers and the managing director of a spare machinery parts company in England, who had flown specially from Stockport to attend the hearing.

But the most powerful testimony came from Manning’s wife Elizabeth, who said her husband had worked very hard to build up his business and to look after their four children. “He has been a fantastic husband, a wonderful father and a true friend,” she said.

She told the court that his businesses had always done well until last August when one of them, Manning Brothers Contracts, had gone into liquidation with debts of €4m and the loss of 82 jobs.

She said it had been caused by a dispute with Meath County Council over a contract and had forced her and her husband to remortgage their €450,000 family home.

She begged Judge Matthews not to sentence her husband to a term in jail. “We will be homeless and penniless if Al is sentenced,” she said.

Judge Matthews said he accepted Manning was a person who had done much in his life and helped many. But he said he felt he had no option but to impose the sentence of two years’ imprisonment due to the fact that it was not a crime of sudden impulse.

“Time does not diminish the gravity of this matter or the calculated manner in which it was conceived and executed,” he said.

Manning was refused leave to appeal but indicated to the court through his lawyers that he would be taking his case to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Mike.

johnplayerblue

Good old rural Ireland, still a place where a "CRIMINAL" has the support of the honorable and upstanding members of the local community. Just another example if one was needed as to what this country is really made up of.
Him, his wife and the rest of the GANG should be horse whipped without mercy, and ill be glad to do the job, Only thing is i'd be a very busy boy cos these parasites are in every county and town in the country!

528i

Tip of the Iceberg, if its the same guy (has a peugeot dealership?) then he was involved in much more than what he'd been caught at. What kind of joker is this "Mayor of Longford", another "110% honest, decent and hardworking" member of society too I suppose ? Right bunch of gansters now the whole lot of them, and it's not as if they needed the money with large businesses & €450k houses back in 1994.

There should be a full CAB investigation on these cvnts and everyone who vouched for them ! :mad:

Capt'n Midnight

£70,000 in 1994 would buy a house. And he only gets two years !
Handbag snatchers have gotten 7 years.

What makes it worse is that the £ 70 grand ain't a lot of money when you are €4m in the red - it's not like the crime would set him up for life like clearing a mortgague would for the average person. Oh and as for getting insurance I've heard of people changing their names by deed pole to evade debtors and he can afford it anyway.

She told the court that his businesses had always done well until last August when one of them, Manning Brothers Contracts, had gone into liquidation with debts of €4m and the loss of 82 jobs.