Work done on his van drove off without paying

A man who got signs and railings put on his van made off without paying for the work on each occasion, Sligo District Court was told.

Judge Kevin Kilrane ( pictured) described the offences committed by Martin Sweeney ( 36) of Mulberry Park, Ballinode as nasty offences.

Sweeney admitted making off without paying YK Signs in Athleague € 300 on September 2nd last and committing a similar offence at Kilgarriff West, Charlestown when railings were put on his van on August 27th at a cost of € 130.

Inspector Donal Sweeney said a price of € 300 was agreed for the signs and after they were put on Sweeney said he was going to the post office to get the money and never returned with it.

When he was told by staff that the Gardaí would be informed he told them to go ahead and tell them.

In the second case railings were put on the defendant’s van, a job which took four hours to complete.

Sweeney said he was going off to get the € 130 from the bank machine but never came back.

The defendant said that both parties had since been paid. He had managed to get together € 1,000 from the time the case was last in court for a charity.

With regard to getting the signs on the van, Sweeney said the price agreed had gone up and he didn’t have it all on him so he went off to the post office to get it.

He told Judge Kilrane that things were looking up for him lately. He was now doing the right thing and stated that he recently painted the house of a retired Grda Sergeant who had given him some good advice.

Judge Kilrane said these offences were nasty and but for the work of the Gardaí not a shilling would have been paid by the defendant.

The Judge asked the defendant to hand in the € 1,000 and said it would go on two fines of € 500 each and not to a charity.