OAP-robbing conman tries one on with appeal
MAN HAD APPEALED CONVICTION FOR STEALING €700 FROM A NEWMARKET OAP
A CONMAN who robbed a Newmarket pensioner tried this week to get off scott free based on the fact that the individual he robbed was 97 years old at the time of the crime.
John ‘Buddy’ O’Brien (pictured on right) - originally from Rathkeale but with addresses in Cork and Waterford - already had 109 previous convictions when he approached an elderly gentleman in the Supervalu car park in Newmarket. The local man, a retired doctor, later said that O’Brien had represented himself as a policeman who was checking for fake euro notes, and showed an identity badge of some sorts.
“He said he wanted to take a look at them to see if they were forged notes, and the minute he got them in his hands he was gone,” the victim told Mallow court.
After an extraordinary piece of detective work by Det. Garda Padraig Reddington, and colleagues - involving tracking mobile phones and matching up a variety of CCTV images - O’Brien was finally nabbed and charged with robbery and impersonating a garda.
However, in court, O’Brien’s counsel managed to cast doubt on the victim’s evidence, and he got off with the impersonation charge but was sentenced to eight years for robbery. This week he was back in court to appeal that.
Of his 109 previous convictions ... four were for impersonating a garda.
A 42-year-old man has failed in his appeal against a nine month jail term imposed for stealing €700 from an elderly North Cork man whom he had duped into handing over cash so that he could ‘check it’ to make sure that the money wasn’t counterfeit.
John ‘Buddy’ O’Brien, a native of Clash Road, Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, had lodged an appeal against the jail term imposed in October 2018 for stealing the cash from Dr Jack Burke at O’Keeffe’s Supervalu Car Park in Newmarket, on January 19 2017.
When the appeal case was called at Mallow Circuit Court on Tuesday, solicitor Cathal Lombard introduced a faxed medical certificate from Mr O’Brien’s solicitor in Dublin stating that a member O’Brien’s family was ill and he applied to have the case adjourned.
However, Judge Brian O’Callaghan refused to adjourn the matter and instead struck out the appeal and affirmed the nine month jail sentence imposed on O’Brien, whose addresses were given as Barrack St in Waterford and Ballyspillane, Killarney, County Kerry,
Dr Burke (99) had told Mallow District Court last October how he had gone to do his shopping at Supervalu and as he was walking from his car towards the rear shop entrance a man drove into the car park and beckoned him to approach him.
“He said he wanted to see me for a minute – he said there was some trouble with notes –he said he was a police man and he showed me an identification document and a badge,” said Dr Burke.
“He asked me had I any notes on me because there were a lot of forged notes going around ... I took out €700 that I had on me ... and he said he wanted to take a look at them to see if they were forged notes, and the minute he got them in his hands he was gone.”
Det Garda Padraig Reddington said the matter was reported to gardaí and he downloaded CCTV footage from Supervalu which captured the incident but was not of sufficient quality to allow gardaí identify the thief or the number plates on his car but they were able to identify the car as a Volvo S 40.
Det Garda Reddington then pursued a detailed investigation, tracking down the car – which had been recently sold by a man in Cobh – and then following O’Brien’s mobile phone signals around Kerry, Limerick and Cork on the day of the robbery of Dr Burke.
Gardai also obtained CCTV footage from a number of sites in Kerry, Cork and Waterford, featuring a man matching O’Brien’s description.
In the original case, cross-examined by O’Brien’s barrister, Eugene Manley BL, Det Garda Reddington agreed it was not possible to identify the driver of the Volvo or the car Reg No from the Supervalu CCTV footage but the location of the insurance and tax discs and alloy wheels matched the Volvo bought by O’Brien.
Mr Manley said that there had to be serious doubts about the identification of his client but Insp Tony O’Sullivan said he believed there was enough evidence to convict O’Brien of the theft charge, and Judge Brian Sheridan agreed.
It then emerged that O’Brien had 109 previous convictions including five for theft, 23 for larceny and four for impersonating a garda.