'This man knew what he was doing': Cork man spent more than €20k of 82-year-old farmer's savings

An 82-year-old bachelor farmer was befriended by a younger man who grazed ponies on his land and went on to spend over €20,000 of the old man’s savings.

Now the sentencing judge has said to the culprit: “Shame on you.” 

Judge Sinead Behan said: “It is a very serious case. This man abused a position of trust of an 82-year-old bachelor farmer who possibly lacked support otherwise.

“This man knew he had €24,000 in his account where he was unjustly enriched. He boldly went in to the bank, withdrew money, and went back and withdrew more (until it was all gone within a month).” 

59-year-old James O’Driscoll of Upper High Street, Drimoleague, Co Cork, faced sentencing for defrauding the 82-year-old of the money between March 14 and April 19 2022, contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2021.

Garda Jonathan McCarthy said the accused asked the victim for permission from him to allow his ponies graze on his land. The injured party agreed to allow him to do as he had an interest in ponies and horses. After a time the defendant asked him for €2,400 to help him with his son’s Confirmation and the farmer agreed to help him, writing out a cheque for that amount which O’Driscoll lodged into his Permanent TSB account.

However, while the farmer had filled out the written part of the cheque correctly stating the amount was €2,400, he had not filled out the correct figure in the box for the amount to be written numerically and rather than writing €2,400 had written €24,000.

Some €24,000 was lodged into O’Driscoll’s account and within a month, O’Driscoll withdrew some €21,600, withdrawing first €10,000 in a bank withdrawal and then €5,000 in another bank withdrawal with the remainder being withdrawn via an ATM, said Garda McCarthy.

The elderly farmer discovered what had happened when a number of cheques came back from his own bank stating that there were insufficient funds in his account to honour the cheques and he then reported the matter to gardaí.

When questioned, Mr O’Driscoll admitted that the money had been in his account, but he claimed that he did not know where the money came from.

Garda McCarthy said: 

“He kept stating that he did not know where the money came from – he said ‘It was in my account – I don’t know where it came from but once it was there, the temptation was to spend it – if I had my time over again, I wouldn’t have spent it.’” 

Permanent TSB had reimbursed the elderly farmer for the €21,600 but Permanent TSB was at a loss for this amount as O’Driscoll had not repaid any of the money to them.

Garda McCarthy told the court that O’Driscoll had a total of 68 previous convictions including one for manslaughter; as well as convictions for assault, public order, possession of drugs for sale or supply and road traffic matters and theft with his most recent conviction being one for simple assault in 2015.

Defence barrister Mahon Corkery suggested that the guilty plea was of some significance in the case as it spared the elderly farmer having to come to court and that O’Driscoll had expressed remorse. Garda McCarthy agreed.

Judge Behan said: “I am hearing what the very experienced guard has said and I am looking at the probation report which indicates he would do community service and enter a payment plan. I don’t want to dispose of the matter today. I would like to adjourn the matter for a period of time. I would like to see the direct payment plan.

“This is an elderly man in the community who was abused and shame on you for doing that. I am going to adjourn this until October 13. He should be putting away €50 a week and take up supervised work.

“I am not indicating this will be disposed of without a custodial sentence. Old people deserve protection. This man knew what he was doing.” 

The judge also indicated that she was taking into consideration the particular family circumstances of the accused in not imposing an immediate prison sentence. 

Old people deserve protection, she said.

Garda McCarthy said the injured party in the case, the elderly farmer had not wished to make a victim impact statement but simply wanted to move on.

Mr Corkery said the accused had left school at the age of 11 as he was left at the back of the class, virtually ignored, resulting in limited employment opportunities. He began abusing alcohol when he was just 13 and got involved in criminality.