Prolif ic DoneDeal conman is jailed
A PROLIFIC DoneDeal website scam artist was caught redhanded selling stolen goods while out on bail for a series of other thefts.
Owen Maughan, 40 – who has 91 previous convictions – was jailed yesterday for four years after he used the popular website to advertise and sell livestock trailers which were stolen from various marts last year.
Detective Paul McNulty, who investigated the father of five’s activities, told the sentence hearing that while on bail, Maughan ‘persisted in this crime wave, selling tickets and things on DoneDeal that do not exist and selling stolen livestock trailers’. He added: ‘I would say this is one of the nastiest crimes there is.’
A PROLIFIC scam artist with more than 90 previous convictions who used website DoneDeal to sell stolen or non-existent goods continued to carry out his crimes even while on bail.
Owen Maughan, 40, who was jailed yesterday for four years, used the popular website to advertise and sell livestock trailers which were stolen from marts last year, a court heard.
And despite previously serving a prison sentence for theft, and being out on bail, Maughan carried on with his DoneDeal scam.
The father- of-five, of 39 Innishannagh Park, Newcastle, Galway, has already served a jail sentence for the theft of two other livestock trailers, and for selling non-existent concert tickets, match tickets, and car parts on the website. That sentence was imposed in July, 2016, and expired in August.
Maughan – who has 91 previous convictions for mostly crimes of deception and theft – yesterday received the sentence of five years with the final year suspended at Galway Circuit Criminal Court for this latest spate of trailer thefts.
Detective Paul McNulty, who investigated Maughan’s activities over two years, told the sentence hearing: ‘ He persisted in this crime wave, selling tickets and things on DoneDeal that do not exist and selling stolen livestock trailers. I would say this is one of the nastiest crimes there is.’
He said that in relation to the charges before the court, three Ifor Williams cattle trailers were stolen from car parks at marts in Athenry and Tuam, Co. Galway, and Kilrush, Co. Clare, between March 21 and 23 last year while Maughan was out on bail. CCTV footage from toll bridges near Loughrea and Enfield captured the Hyundai SUV involved in the thefts with a trailer attached. The footage identified Maughan as the driver. Det. McNulty said he checked DoneDeal on March 23 last year and saw an advert for an Ifor Williams trailer for sale.
Det. McNulty set up a ‘sting’ and his colleague, Det. Pat Fahy, posed as a buyer. The following morning both detectives stopped Maughan’s Hyundai SUV near Roscommon town, towing the trailer stolen from Kilrush the previous day. The SUV had false number plates and he was disqualified from driving at the time. Det. McNulty arrested and charged Maughan, who refused to answer any questions and refused to inform gardaí about the whereabouts of the other two trailers.
Det. McNulty said he noticed another advert on DoneDeal on March 25, offering another Ifor Williams trailer for sale for €4,750. Gardaí met the seller, Ned Cash from Adamstown, Co. Wexford. Mr Cash told Det. McNulty he bought the trailer from a man named ‘Ger’ in Kilcock four days beforehand – the same day it had been stolen – after he saw an advert on DoneDeal and that he paid €2,250. Det. McNulty said that DoneDeal identified the IP address used to place t he advert as belonging to Maughan’s home address. Maughan, Det. McNulty said yesterday, ‘is one of the most prolific scam artists in this country using the DoneDeal website’.
Maughan had pleaded guilty last July to the theft of the trailer he was caught with in Roscommon, but denied charges relating to the other trailers.
After Judge Rory McCabe imposed the five-year sentence, a stunned-looking Maughan quickly offered a further €4,000 cash on top of the €1,000 his wife had brought to court. The judge said it was ‘too little too late’, but he directed the €1,000 be divided between the victims.
Comment
Detectives set up a sting
WHAT does it say about our justice system that someone with 91 previous convictions can persist in his crime wave while out on bail?
Owen Maughan, a 40-year-old father of five from Co. Galway, was yesterday jailed for four years for using the DoneDeal website to advertise and sell livestock trailers that he had stolen in broad daylight.
Considered by gardaí as one of the country’s most prolific scam artists, Maughan was described in court as someone who had never abided by any law or any bail conditions.
He was not some petty criminal, but rather a serial offender who saw the law as no obstacle to his larceny. Then again, if he got away so lightly following many of his previous convictions, why stop there?
The truth is that someone with such a stunning criminal record should have already been serving jail time. At the very least, he should have been remanded in custody. The fact that he felt unconstrained to continue his crime spree is beyond belief.
No society can tolerate the likes of Owen Maughan. That he is now in jail should be a relief to all his victims. That he was free to continue offending in the first place is a travesty of justice.