21-05-2025
Man sold expensive diggers and machinery he didn't own to unsuspecting buyers
David Fogarty (28) also pleaded guilty to trying to pervert the course of justice
A Tipperary businessman has pleaded guilty to theft and fraud by selling a number of expensive plant machines he did not own to unsuspecting buyers in different transactions that netted him around €100,000.
David Fogarty (28) also pleaded guilty to trying to pervert the course of justice by coercing innocent people to present false letters to judges claiming he was undergoing treatment for addiction. He used the deception to get his criminal case hearings adjourned.
Fogarty, of Park, Killea, in Templemore, appeared before Judge Catherine Staines at Nenagh Circuit Criminal Court on Friday.
At the beginning of the case, he made an application to change the barrister presenting his case.
This was granted by Judge Staines, who ruled that evidence from gardaí could still be presented and Fogarty's legal team could present mitigating evidence at the next hearing.
Fogarty had taken photographs of one vehicle and used that, as well as a false invoice with an invalid Vat number as evidence of ownership
Detective Garda Mark Cullinane from Thurles garda station was led through his evidence by barrister Ed O'Mahony for the DPP in relation to the sale of two vehicles to one man in June 2021 with a total value of more than €42,000.
The charges fall under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act of 2001.
David Fogarty
News in 90 seconds - 21st May
He said Fogarty had taken photographs of one vehicle, a JCB telescopic handler, and used that, as well as a false invoice with an invalid Vat number, as evidence of ownership to sell it. The court was told that, after the buyer transferred money to Fogarty, the vehicle was never delivered.
'It didn't belong to him,' said Det Garda Cullinane.
In relation to a second vehicle in a deal at around the same time, Fogarty had come into possession of a mini-digger by defrauding a dealer using passport details and Facebook photographs of a woman who had lost her bag.
Because it was during Covid-19 restrictions, meetings in person were not permitted, and the dealership and finance company were convinced the deal was legitimate.
The court was told the buyer got suspicious when he felt the deal he had entered into was too good to be true
When the vehicle was being transported by trailer to the woman's address, the driver received a phone call to meet at a different location, and the vehicle was offloaded elsewhere and then came into Fogarty's possession.
The court was told the buyer got suspicious when he felt the deal he had entered into was too good to be true, and he rang the original dealership using a phone number on a sticker on the vehicle to make enquiries. He discovered the digger was still on finance to someone else.
The vehicle was repossessed by the finance company and the buyer was at the loss of the money he paid.
Detective Garda Donna Ferguson, of Letterkenny garda station, gave evidence in relation to a charge of theft and fraud whereby a mechanical lift vehicle was advertised on an online buying and selling site. A buyer sent Fogarty a holding deposit of €1,000 and then met him and transferred him £35,900 (€42,649) after he was shown a false bank document saying the finance on the vehicle had been cleared.
In his victim-impact statement, the defrauded buyer said he had since had to close his business, and had suffered serious financial loss and depression.
Garda Colum Godfrey, of Nenagh garda station, gave evidence of the fraudulent sale of a digger that originated in Northern Ireland. Fogarty was involved in the transportation of two diggers and met another driver by arrangement in Portlaoise who was transporting them for part of the journey.
The first driver told Fogarty he would be interested in buying diggers and asked him whether either of the two diggers they were transporting were for sale, and Fogarty told him one of them was. But he did not own either of them.
A few days later, the driver came to see the digger where it was being stored and agreed to buy it for €33,000. The money was transferred into an account and taken out over a few days. The buyer never got the digger because it was not Fogarty's to sell.
Det Garda Cullinane then gave evidence of Fogarty sending fake letters to courts in order to have his hearings adjourned.
Judge Staines remanded him on bail to be sentenced at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court on May 28.
