TOUGH SETBACK FOR OZ IRISH FAMILY...AFTER €27k REPAIRS
AUSSIE officials arrested an Irishman trying to flee the country on his brother’s passport as police hunted him over being part of a €440,000 roofing scam.
Cops raided a home on Thursday of last week in Thomastown, a suburb of Melbourne, looking for the 21-year-old.
But they later tracked him down to the city’s airport where he had been attempting to board a flight bound for Ireland.
Police claim that the Irish lad scammed an 81-year-old man out of over €60,000 to carry out work on his roof between May and June of this year.
Pots
But he in fact left it in a worse state than he found it in, and the elderly man has had to resort to using pots to catch leaks from his ceiling.
He has been charged with obtaining property by deception and is to appear before a court on September 5.
Three days after the Irishman’s arrest, three men — two of whom are from the UK — were arrested over the same scheme.
Australian Border Force Superintendent Nicholas Walker said: “We are working with state police to identify and disrupt the criminal activities of con men.”
DEVASTATING flash floods have destroyed the Australian home of an Irish emigrant — for the second time in just three months.
Ciaran Gogarty and his family are now counting the costs of repair yet again as flood waters hit just weeks after they spent AUS$40,000 (€27,250) refurbishing their waterlogged house, which had already been badly damaged by deluges in March. The Co Meath native, his wife Amanda and their three young children had to evacuate their home again in early July and rely on family and friends for accommodation.
The family are now appealing for help as they assess and try to repair the damage to their detached home in the Sydney suburb of Windsor, where they have been living for the last eight years.
Unfortunately the property is uninsured after the family couldn’t afford the AUS$1500 (€1,000) a month that they were quoted by insurance companies against flooding.
Trapped
Last month the Hawkesbury River exceeded 13.8 metres, leaving many residents cut off from their homes and businesses and others trapped without power, water and food.
The Windsor Bridge, which was previously thought to be flood-proof, was completely submerged.
The extreme conditions forced Ciaran, Amanda and their three children, nine-year-old William, six-year-old Grace and threeyear-old Callum to seek shelter in hotels and with relatives.
Originally from Kilmainhamwood, Kells, Ciaran (40) and his siblings emigrated with his parents Padraig and Bernadette to Australia 30 years ago.
Ciaran, who works in the waste industry, admitted they have “no choice but to keep going”.
“We have endured four floods in the last 18 months but it’s the last two that have flooded the house. The first two only reached the garden,” he said.
“We were trying to sell the house but after the last flood, the real estate agents told us to hang in there for a few years.
“We were hopeful that the floods were just freak attacks of nature but the long range forecast is for more rain in September and October.”