Carer used pensioner’s bank card to rob him
A man acting as a carer for an 81-year-old wheelchair-bound neighbour was fined €1,200 and given a suspended five-month jail term for using the pensioner’s bank card to steal cash.
“It is a particularly nasty offence,” Judge John King said as he sentenced 52-year-old Gerard Higgins of Henry Street, Cork.
The judge made an order preventing Higgins from having contact — direct or indirect — with his elderly neighbour in the future.
Higgins repaid the victim the €2,600 he stole from him. Judge King said that without this restitution Higgins would have been jailed.
Addressing the daughter and son-in-law of the victim who were in court on every occasion to represent him, Judge King said: “Tell your father I am sorry his faith in humanity has been affected by this.”
A written victim impact statement was given to the judge but it was not read out in court.
Diarmuid Kelleher, defence solicitor, said the accused was a broken man as a result of his own actions.
He acknowledged that it was particularly nasty and in his own words said it was a breach of trust.
“He is a broken man. He has lost whatever status he had in his local community. He is going to suffer from this in his community.
“A lot of social media, among others, have caused him difficulty getting a job. He is pretty much a broken man because of this. He is the author of this himself.
“Mr Higgins was helping him (the injured party) to do a lot of things. Unfortunately, he was given access to his card and PIN number. When he got into financial difficulty he began to use this to get these people off his back,” Mr Kelleher said.
Detective Garda Noel Maxwell described the background to the seven theft charges committed by Gerard Higgins.
The total amount of money stolen by Higgins from John Buckley was €2,600.
The detective said Higgins was acting in the role of unofficial part-time carer to the elderly man who lived nearby.
“He had access to his home and knew where he kept his Visa card and also knew Mr Buckley’s PIN number for the card,” Detective Garda Maxwell said.
On each theft he took the card from a drawer and went to the ATM of the AIB at North Main Street or to the ATM across the road at the PTSB and made withdrawals from Mr Buckley’s account without his knowledge.
The seven thefts were committed between February and May 2016. After every withdrawal the card was put back in the injured party’s drawer. Mr Kelleher said the defendant’s financial circumstances were absolutely dire at the time and he was desperate to get some money for his family.
Inspector John Deasy said he found the victim impact statement to be very fair. Mr Kelleher objected to it again yesterday saying that parts which were to have been excluded remained in the statement.
The judge said he would read it and disregard any matters that were not properly part of the case if they were present. After reading it the judge said, “He is a very vulnerable man who placed great trust in (Higgins). That is pretty clear. That has had an impact on his ability to trust others.”
On six of the seven theft charges, the judge imposed €200 fines and imposed a suspended jail term on the last count.
