Cow let out on a main road and hit by a car in insurance scam

A cow was delibertely let on to the road so a driver could crash into it, Sligo District Court was told.

The ‘ staged’ accident took place at Ballybeg, Knocknahur, Ransboro on October 9th 2014.

The case against Stephen McDonald ( 23) of 53 Mill Falls, Collooney had been adjourned from a previous court to allow him pay back compensation.

He admitted a charge of making gain or causing loss by negligence. There were two passengers in the defendant’s car.

The court heard FBD Insurance to pay out € 4,000 for damage to the car. though no personal injury action had been initiated.

Mr Mark Mullaney, solicitor ( defending) said the defendant had € 2,000 in court and he was seeking further time to come up with the remaining € 2,000.

Inspector Denis Joyce said it was a single vehicle staged accident with the driver colliding with a cow on the road having been let out of a field nearby after a fence was knocked down.

The court heard that the cow survived the collision.

Mr Gerry Gannon, solicitor ( for FBD) complimented the Gardaí for “arresting the matter in its infancy.”

Mr Mullaney pointed out that the it had never got to the stage where personal injury actions were initiated.

Judge Kevin Kilrane said that surely there was “a bigger picture.”

Mr Mullaney replied that the defendant had got into the matter to a certain depth but got no further and confessed to it all.

Judge Kilrane said he wouldn’t finalise the matter until the balance of the compensation was paid.

He adjourned the case to January for sentencing.

The Judge warned that an- yone found guilty of making a fraudulent claim must be dealt with severely, particularly in this present day when premiums were on the rise.

“This was a shocking act of criminality, letting out a cow on tot he road for the sole purpose of crashing into it,” said the Judge.

The previous sitting heard that McDonald and another man hatched the scheme and then introduced Daniel Meehan of Farnaharpy, Skreen to the idea.

Meehan told Gardai McDonald picked him up and they were in Ballisodare “discussing ways to make money.”

However, Meehan told Gardai that he had his doubts when he saw the cow on the road and that as they got closer to the cow one of them shouted ‘ don’t do it’ but it was too late and they hit the cow.

Meehan then said that the cow got up and ran away and they called an ambulance and the Gardai.

Solicitor for Meehan, Laura Spellman, said that Meehan was “relieved” when the truth came out.

“He wasn’t the brains behind the plan but he foolishly went along with it,” she told the judge.

She said that Meehan wrote a letter of apology to the farmer and offered to rebuild the fence but the farmer had already repaired it.

Ms Spellman said that Meehan was “very ashamed” and the incident had caused a “huge embarrassment to his family”.

The court then heard that Meehan had no previous convictions and the judge ordered him to pay € 500 to a charity, and adjourned his case until December 15 and if there was nothing further he would strike out the charge.