A serial fraudster who pretended to make a documentary about sick children for RTÉ before cheating an electronics company out of € 13,000 was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Atrick Sheedy, 53, also defrauded an educational supply company out of just under € 10,000 by pretending to be from the Department of Education, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
Judge Martin Nolan said he was not sure Sheedy would stop cheating people when he got out of jail, but said he could not lock him up forever.
Sheedy has 97 previous convictions, of which about 70 are for fraud offenses, the court heard.
He is already serving a sentence handed down at the Limerick Circuit Court in October 2020 and he was on bail for those offenses when he carried out the crimes in court today.
Sheedy, of Cliona Park, Moyross, Co Limerick, pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud at an address in Dublin on dates between January and March 2020.
He also pleaded guilty to four counts of theft at locations in Dublin between August and September 2020.
Judge Nolan said Sheedy has the ability to take advantage of the trusting nature of other parties and has done so for a long time.
“He is intelligent and convincing. “It seems he has the thug’s ability,” the judge said.
“Until now, I have been incredibly successful in deceiving people. The question is, can he change his ways? He insults people, can he stop? ”
The judge said he was not sure Sheedy would not continue to deceive people after he got out of jail.
“Rule science in this country does not recognize preventive detention. “I can not put him in jail for the rest of his life because I think he will be a crook forever,” he said.
He noted that Sheedy’s lawyers told the court he had a gambling addiction and that he was doing well in prison and using the services provided to inmates.
The judge imposed a concurrent 15-month prison sentence that must run consecutively until the end of the sentence he is currently serving.
Sergeant Colin Sullivan told the court Sheedy contacted an electronics company in January 2020 and told them he was a documentary creator who had been commissioned to make a documentary about sick children for RTÉ. He gave them a false name.
Sheedy said one of the children had an advanced brain injury due to premature birth and that she needed the use of an iPad to help her in her daily activities.
He said he would interview the managing director as part of the documentary. The electronics company has agreed to provide Sheedy with an iPad for this use.
Sheedy also placed an order for 15 cellphones with a value of € 12,460. When he failed to pay, the company contacted RTÉ and discovered that there was no such documentary and that Sheedy was not contracted by them. is not
Between the phones and the iPad, the company was at a loss of € 13,539, the court heard.
A few months later, Sheedy contacted an educational supplies company claiming to be from the Department of Education. I placed an order for 12 cell phones that were fulfilled but never paid. The company had a loss of € 9,801, the court heard.
Around the same time, Sheedy contacted a cell phone company claiming to work for BMW. I ordered five iPhones worth € 4,200 and never paid for them.
None of the companies involved got any money back, with Sheedy selling the electronic goods for cash, the court heard.
Sgt Sullivan said Sheedy lived with his elderly mother and had a gambling addiction.