A GAMBLER, who carried out acts of financial deception at a credit union and duped a householder into paying him over €2,000 for construction work that was never done, has had his 12-month sentence cut in half.

The appeal by 40-year-old Ian O’Sullivan was before Cork Circuit Appeals Court on four occasions so he could gather compensation. But the appellant has been overtaken by events as he recently got an 11-month sentence for another financial crime.

Following a submission from barrister John Devlin, who said O’Sullivan had managed to gather €1,500 compensation, Judge Helen Boyle said she would reduce the overall sentence to one of six months, to be served concurrently with the 11 months.

The judge noted that O’Sullivan had made “some effort” to compensate for his crimes.

O’Sullivan of 54 Cherry Lawn, Church Rd, Blackrock, Cork, was sentenced to two consecutive six-month sentences at Cork District Court.

Now those terms have been reduced to two three-month sentences, consecutive to each other.

The background to the financial deception charges relating to St Michael’s Credit Union was outlined previously by Sergeant Pat Lyons.

They were carried out on seven dates in November 2019 when O’Sullivan was effectively involved in money-laundering.

He rang the credit union and lodged money from an account into his own account and then went there each day after the phone call to withdraw the lodgement in cash. The fraud was discovered by an officer at the credit union after a loss of €1,985 was caused by Ian O’Sullivan.

As well as pleading guilty to these offences, O’Sullivan also admitted presenting himself as a builder in August 2021 and agreeing with a householder to build a shed.

He was paid €2,160 in advance for materials and he spent all of the money on gambling and drink and failed to do any work.

In respect of the credit union not getting a portion of the limited compensation, which was instead directed entirely to the householder, state solicitor Frank Nyhan remarked that the institution had “broader shoulders”.