Judge Mary Devins adjourned the case against a Castlebar man who pleaded guilty to a scam where he advertised mobile phones for sale on the website www.donedeal.ie, but when people paid him for the phones, he never sent them on.
Michael Lawrence, 2 Kilkenny Close, Mooneen, Castlebar, pleaded guilty to seven charges of making gain or causing a loss by deception, which saw him net €1,800 in total from seven people from all over the country.
Judge Mary Devins had begun hearing the facts of the case from Superindent Joe Doherty after Lawrence had entered a guilty plea, but adjourned the case so that the investigating garda could give her the full facts of the investigation that led to Lawerence’s arrest.
Supt Doherty had told the court that Lawrence had advertised iPhones for sale on www.donedeal.ie and that people had got in contact with him by phone or email and he arranged to sell people the phones and for them to pay money into his bank account located in the AIB branch in Kiltimagh. People either lodged it into his account in person or made electronic fund transfer payments and when one person made a complaint about not recieving the phone a Garda investigation uncovered that a number of other people had also fallen foul of the scam.
Judge Devins adjourned the case until April 17 for the full facts of the case to be given to her by the investigating garda.
