Limerick fraudster given 'one last chance' to deal with his gambling addiction

A JUDGE has given a convicted fraudster “one last chance” to deal with his gambling addiction after he admitted carrying out a rugby match ticket scam on a Westmeath publican.

Pat Sheedy,  51, of Cliona Park, Moyross, Limerick has 59 previous convictions for fraud offences, many of which involve deception. A number of his previous convictions relate to offences which occurred in Limerick.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard this Friday that in January 2019, Sheedy pleaded guilty to the theft of €548 from Westmeath publican Con Gilsenan.

Garda Damien Kelly told Aideen Collard BL, prosecuting, that Mr Gilsenan had made it known that he was looking for tickets for a Six Nations match between England and Ireland in February 2019.

Sheedy contacted Con's bar and told Mr Gilsenan he had secured four premium tickets. He said he would send them on to him by courier once the victim had transferred an agreed fee to his online betting account.

The tickets never arrived and when Mr Gilsenan rang Sheedy about this, Sheedy said he would meet him in the city to give him the tickets. The victim travelled to the capital with his wife but Sheedy never met them and the victim later went to gardaí.

Sarah Connolly BL, defending, told the court her client lived with his elderly mother and was generally a polite and courteous man.

She said he has a chronic gambling addiction and has engaged with gambling addiction therapy since going into custody. She said he is unequivocally apologetic for his actions.

The court heard the victim felt embarrassed and distressed at the deception.

Judge Karen O'Connor told Sheedy that in a letter to the court he had asked “for one last chance”. She said that gambling addictions were all consuming powerful addiction.  

She told Sheedy: “You are being given a chance here. You will not recover from your gambling addiction if you don't get help. You are not going to simply stop being a gambler, you need that help”.

She suspended a two year prison term for four years on condition that he keep the peace and continue to engage with gambling addiction treatment programmes.

Sheedy is currently serving a a sentence for separate offences and has a release date in January 2023.

In 2010, he received a four year suspended sentence after admitting his part in a €10,000 fraud scam.

On that occasion, he used his employer's name as a reference to get credit on a new Bank of Ireland account.

He then withdrew €10,606.85 in person and at ATMs in under two weeks.