Mayo farmer who passed dud cheque then tried to 'cod' district court

A North Mayo farmer who passed a dud cheque and then tried to "cod" a district court judge has been sent to prison.

Alex Keane, aged 32, of Heathfield Lane, Ballycastle pleaded not guilty at Ballina District Court to intentionally making a gain and causing a loss by deception to Patrick Gallagher at Deelpark, Crossmolina.

Mr Gallagher told the court he spotted an advertisement on the classifieds website, Done Deal, by AJ Keane who was looking to purchase sheep. He contacted Keane by telephone and the defendant met him on December 6, 2020. Keane agreed a price of €870 for 19 sheep and paid by cheque, but the cheque bounced when Mr Gallagher went to lodge it two days later.

The complainant phoned Keane who said he had an issue with the Department of Agriculture about the sale of other sheep, and advised him to lodge the cheque again. Mr Gallagher relodged the cheque on December 23, 2020, but it failed to clear. He said he made numerous attempts to telephone Keane after that but his calls went unanswered. He then notified the Gardaí.

Gda Sgt Kieran Lavelle told the court he arrested Keane in Ballycastle on May 17, 2021, and brought him to Ballina Garda Station for an interview. Keane had no solicitor present during his Garda interview, and repeatedly replied, ‘That is irrelevant’ when asked about his farming activities and the agreement to buy the sheep. When the defendant was asked if he placed the Done Deal adverts, he responded, “Kiss my a**e’.

The outstanding €870 was eventually paid to Mr Gallagher on February 14, 2023, but the prosecution insisted this only happened because legal proceedings had commenced.

Defending solicitor Catherine Bourke said her client made several attempts to locate Mr Gallagher, whose legal forename is Patrick but who is better known as Christopher, and pay him the money. She said Keane claimed he had €940 in his account on December 4, 2020, and had €1,700 in his account on December 18, 2020, when he advised Mr Gallagher to relodge the cheque again. However, Ms Bourke said this did not happen for another five days.

“The funds were there but it was just a mismanagement of timing," she added.

Keane, a father of two, told the court he believed he had sufficient money in his account. He said Mr Gallagher lives several kilometres from the field where they met and claimed he mistakenly dropped off €870 to the "wrong" Patrick Gallagher in early 2022 and only realised his mistake in November 2022.

Keane said he also went to Ballina Garda Station twice to speak to Sgt Lavelle about paying the complainant but “one day he was off and another day he was rushing off to court”.

However, Gda Insp Ciaran Diffily said the defendant had a history of issuing dud cheques and there were several examples of these in his bank statements, which were produced as evidence in court. The inspector asked Keane why he continuously wrote cheques that he could not fulfill, but the defendant said he had never intentionally done so. Insp Diffily said he did not accept the defendant's evidence to the court.

“I have to put it to you that the day you wrote the cheque on the 6th of December for Mr Gallagher, you knew the cheque would not clear, but you gave him some cock and bull explanation and told him to lodge it again,” he said. “That cheque did not clear again, and we heard he tried to contact you numerous times subsequent to that when he was met with silence.

Having viewed the bank statements, Judge Brendan O’Reilly pointed out that Keane only had €858 in his account when he wrote the cheque on December 6, 2020, and when the cheque was lodged on December 8, 2020, his account was overdrawn by €463.

“You did not have the funds either time, stop trying to cod the court, you are out of road here,” he warned. “You laboured the fact more than once that you called to the garda station with a view to paying Mr Gallagher and the Gardaí were not there, so are the Guards to blame for all of this?"

Judge O’Reilly said he was satisfied the only reason the defendant paid the complainant was that he had “seen the writing on the wall”. He praised Ms Bourke on her professional representation but said the charge had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 

The court then heard the defendant has 36 previous convictions.

Judge O'Reilly imposed a four-month jail term and a fine of €1,000.