Cork man jailed for duping woman into paying for Electric Picnic tickets she never received

A Donegal woman was duped by a Cork man on Donedeal to send him over €300 for two Electric Picnics tickets that she never received and now he has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Seán O’Neill of 1 Sunday School Lane, Blackpool, put the advertisement on the Donedeal website for the festival tickets priced at a total of €300 for the pair with an additional fee for €18.90.

The Letterkenny woman sent the money to O’Neill’s account and waited for the tickets which never arrived.

Sergeant Ann Marie Twomey said at Cork District Court that the woman was never compensated for her loss.

O’Neill, 32, had 119 previous convictions.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said the defendant was serving a three-year jail term imposed on him for dealing heroin in Cork city.

Mr Buttimer said the accused was quite a good hurler in his day but unfortunately developed a number of drug addictions including heroin.

Judge Olann Kelleher imposed a six-month sentence on O’Neill for stealing the cash via the tickets scam.

Back in November at Cork Circuit Criminal Court O’Neill admitted of possession of Diamorphine for the purpose of sale or supply at his home on May 30 2018.

Garda Linda O’Keeffe testified that she observed the defendant in suspected drug transactions with known drug users.

On the basis of these observations, Garda O’Keeffe obtained a warrant to search the defendant’s home and found €3,460 worth of heroin.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a sentence totalling four years with the last year suspended.

That sentence also covered crimes of deception where he conned people into paying for concert tickets and silage wrap via the internet.

Alan O’Dwyer, defence barrister, said at the time that the accused used his own bank account and it was inevitable that he would be caught.

The judge agreed, stating: “He was preying on the vulnerability of people. He was somewhat gullible himself, giving his own bank account details. How he was going to get away it, I don’t know.”