Solicitor: No doubt that ‘bikegate’ has caused reputational damage for An Garda Síochána

MR Tansey questioned who was making the decisions to refer the matter to the DPP and why there was an investigation and why his client remained suspended for so long.

The case, he said, has done considerable damage to the reputation of An Garda Síochána: “There is no doubt that An Garda Síochána has suffered reputational damage as a result of this case, there is no doubt.

“They should, with great speed and alacrity, do their utmost to rehabilitate themselves in relation to this in the public eye.

“There is no doubt they have work to do in terms of how they are viewed/perceived by the public when a case like this arises.”

He added: “The gardaí performed commendably during the pandemic. They brought people to the supermarkets, to the chemist shops, people from isolated areas. They waited for them until they got their messages and brought them back to their homes, great work. Gardaí were doing this during the pandemic.

“The lending of this bicycle to this farmer was in that context, in that spirit and the idea that the force would turn on this man in the circumstances, just beggars belief.

“Was nobody looking at this thing critically? Clearly nobody was looking at this critically for three years.”

The garda, stationed in the Midlands, had given the bike to the man but had failed to fill out the necessary paperwork.

When the incident came to light the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris suspended the experienced garda and directed the National

Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI), who investigate the most serious offences, to probe the incident.

Detectives from the NBCI carried out searches under warrant at the garda’s home and in the station in June 2020.

They also retrieved the missing bicycle from the elderly man.

Mr Tansey told the Sligo Weekender he was perplexed when he began to read the background to the case: “Initially they got a warrant to enter his house, and to get a warrant you have to swear what’s called ‘an information’. The dawn raid on this man’s house was on June 4, 2020.

“He wasn’t long in bed because he was out on a drugs bust in respect of which he received a commendation when the specialist squad (NBCI) from Dublin arrived in three vehicles.

“This is the unit that investigates very serious crimes, murder, rape. That’s the unit that deals with international crimes.

“They look after all the heavyduty crimes.

“An officer from that unit came to a District Court in the Midlands and ‘swore an information’ that this man was a suspect in the theft of two bicycles and two very expensive wheels.

“Subsequently, the DPP indicated there was no criminality.

“The internal investigation that then commenced was in respect of only one bicycle.

“He was suspended on June 4, 2020, and even though the alleged crimes he was supposed to be involved in had been reduced by two-thirds, sanction (the suspension) remained unaltered until July/August 2023.

“The word ‘theft’ was used in the ‘information’ sought in that District Court in the Midlands.

“This man brought this bike to a farmer during the pandemic.

“In the year up to June 2020, the year this happened, he already received six commendations for quality work as a detective.

“It is beggars belief that this is the way his own force turned on him.

Mr Tansey stressed: “He was found not to be in breach of the allegations that he was alleged to have been in breach of.

“That decision was handed down by the inquiry on Tuesday week last, March 5.

“That decision goes to the Commissioner along with a transcript of the hearing.

“The hearing went on for four days, the Commissioner has 21 days to copperfasten the decision or otherwise.”