Revenue official is caught in sting offering illegal cigarettes for sale
A REVENUE officer who offered to sell unstamped Polish cigarettes during an undercover sting operation in Limerick city centre has paid “an enormous price”, a court has heard.
Colm Keane, 37, who has an address at Shravokee, Clonlara was convicted, at Limerick District Court, of offering 400 Marlboro cigarettes for sale at Thomas Street, Limerick on January 5, 2018.
During a contested hearing, customs officer Christopher Mulqueen said a covert operation was put in place to carry out a test purchase after customs officers responded to a post on social media advertising cigarettes for sale at €7 per pack.
The ad was posted by a user with the profile name ‘Bruno Baz’ who, the court heard, was Mr Keane’s girlfriend.
He said the an arrangement was made to meet the seller at a cafe at Thomas Street at 12.15pm and that a surveillance operation was mounted.
Officer Mulqueen said two undercover officers were in situ at the cafe while he and another colleague observed from a distance.
He told Judge Marian O’Leary that shortly after 12.15pm he observed a male who was carrying a small plastic bag approaching the two undercover officers.
After the bag, which contained 20 packets of cigarettes, was handed over he approached the male and identified himself as a customs officer.
After Mr Keane produced his Revenue staff card to confirm his identity, he was taken to a Customs patrol car where he was interviewed under caution.
The defendant told Officer Mulqueen that he had bought the cigarettes in Poland a number of days earlier and that he had intended smoking them himself.
He explained that he had been contacted by his girlfriend who had asked him to sell them.
“I said I would sell them for her and that she could keep the extra profits once she paid me what I paid for them,” he told Officer Mulqueen.
Being cross-examined by barrister Pat Barriscale, the witness rejected that it was “highly irregular” to interview suspects in patrol cars.
”It is standard practice in these type of cases,” he said.
Officer Mulqueen also rejected the suggestion that he had not cautioned Mr Keane and that he did not read the notes of the interview back to him. “I refute that. I read from start to finish,” he insisted.
The customs officer who met with the defendant told the court that after she arrived at the cafe, she received a message at 12.13pm informing her that the seller would be driving a silver Peugeot car and would be wearing a red hat.
When Mr Keane approached her, he asked if she was “Lisa” which was the name provided in reply to the Facebook ad.
”He asked if I was Lisa. He opened the plastic bag and I took it from him and put it on the ground,” she said adding that her colleagues then moved in.
After Judge Marian O’Leary rejected an application to dismiss the charge, the defendant took to the witness box to give direct evidence.
He told Mr Barriscale he had no knowledge of the Facebook advertisement or the correspondence that had taken place between the Customs officers and his girlfriend.
“I received a phone call from her asking me to deliver cigarettes. I was told to meet (the buyer) at a coffee shop in the city centre,” he said.
Mr Keane, who accepted that duty had not been paid on the cigarettes, said he informed Officer Mulqueen that he was not selling them and that he had not committed any offence.
He insisted he had not been cautioned and stated he believed the interview in the patrol car was for “some incident report”.
Seeking to have the case dismissed, Mr Barriscale noted his client’s girlfriend had not been interviewed and that the cigarettes had not been produced in court as evidence.
He submitted the investigation had been “shoddy” and that the interview process had been flawed.
“He did not offer anything for sale. He delivered 400 cigarettes to a Lisa. He did not offer to sell any tobacco products to anybody,” he added.
Solicitor Aileen Mee, prosecuting, said it was not relevant that Mr Keane was not the person who posted the ad on Facebook offering cigarettes for sale and she submitted the State had proven its case – based on the evidence.
Judge O’Leary agreed and after she formally convicted the defendant of the charge before the court, Mr Barriscale stated his client has paid “an enormous price” for what he described as an error in judgment.
Seeking leniency he said his client had worked with the Revenue at Sarsfield House for more than a decade but was dismissed following the incident.
“He lost his job, he lost his entitlements, he lost everything – he has been enormously penalised,” he said.
Having considered the matter, Judge O’Leary imposed a €2,500 fine – giving him 18 months to pay.