Cork man pleads guilty to ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ in silage wrap deception

A 54-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to the deception of a French company establishing itself in Ireland in the field of plastic wrapping for bales of silage, was described as “robbing Peter to pay Paul” in using the company to cover older debts he had around the country.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court Judge Sinead Behan imposed a three-year suspended sentence on Seán O’Connor of Garrendurg, Kilbrittain, for three counts of deception of Trioplast, now known as Trioworld, for sums of €129,000, €75,000, and €20,000 between May and August 2019. The judge was told that civil proceedings taken by the injured party had been compromised and that the accused man paid compensation in final settlement of the proceedings.

Detective Garda Hugh Byrne investigated the case and testified that the French company was keen to establish in the Irish market and agreed with Seán O’Connor that for a finder’s fee of 1%-3% of any order, he would try to get orders from farmers.

In the three cases of deception before the court, the modus operandi described by the detective was effectively the same.

Mr O’Connor had a pre-existing debt with each of three farmers, unrelated to any transaction involving the French company. The defendant told each of them he would supply them with a quantity of silage bale wrapping instead of paying them the money he owed.

In each case, the French company later billed the Irish farmer, only to be told they had effectively paid Mr O’Connor already.

When Trioplast got in touch with him he said that they should bill him instead. In this way he effectively turned old debts owing to three Irish farmers — in Offaly, Cavan, and Mallow — to three new debts which he then owed to Trioplast.

Det Garda Byrne said Trioplast did not believe it could challenge the arrangements entered into by the three farmers as they feared this would cause it reputational damage, through no fault of its own, at a time when it was trying to get a foothold in the Irish market.

Defence barrister Ray Boland said civil proceedings taken against Seán O’Connor by Trioplast had been compromised with payments made by the defendant, culminating in a last payment by him to them for €109,000, which he raised through the remortgaging of his family home.

Mr Boland said in relation to the deception: “He was robbing Peter to pay Paul. But he is guilty of robbing Peter.”

Imposing a three-year suspended sentence, Judge Behan described the defendant’s actions as an abuse of trust. “He transferred his debt to Trioplast and this company found itself in a very invidious position in Ireland. Now the monies appear to have been repaid under threat of civil proceedings and criminal complaint,” Judge Behan said.