No jail for cashing cheques signed by elderly victim of building con job

By Declan Brennan and Jessica Magee

A man who cashed cheques written by an elderly woman who was conned out of €40,000 by a would-be builder contractor has received a suspended prison sentence.

Liam Evans (31) of Harelawn Avenue, Clondalkin, Dublin was given a two-year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court and ordered to offer the sum of €5,000 to the woman within a year.

Evans had pleaded guilty earlier to three counts of laundering the proceeds of crime by cashing cheques at the Dublin Airport branch of Ulster Bank.

The court heard that between April 2019 and March 2021, Evans cashed five cheques totalling €23,500 written by the victim, who had been approached by men offering to carry out significant building work to her home.

The men claimed to be from a named construction and roofing company and inveigled the woman to write a number of cheques to various payees, including Evans.

The woman, aged in her 80s, ultimately paid over €44,000, but the majority of construction was never carried out and only minor work was done.

The court heard that the offending came to light when the HSE alerted gardaí to a suspected case of elder abuse.

Gardaí then examined identification documents used by Evans and the co-accused when cashing the cheques at the bank at Dublin Airport, where the victim worked before retirement.

After his arrest, Evans told gardaí he hadn’t properly looked at the cheques he has been given to cash to see who was issuing or signing them.

He said he had acted stupidly.

At a hearing last Thursday, Judge Martin Nolan said Evans must have known that the men giving him the cheques were defrauding the woman.

Counsel for Evans said his client was working on a number of sites at one time and didn’t properly pay attention to whose name was issuing the cheque.

“He was stupid and reckless and that is why he has pleaded guilty,” counsel said, pointing out that gardaí had accepted that Evans was genuinely carrying out some work, and that about €9,000 of the money he received had been genuine.

Counsel said that Evans is gainfully employed but on minimum wage and has three children, including a newborn.

The stolen monies were never recovered and the victim remains at a loss, the court heard.

Judge Nolan said that Evans was “secondary” to this fraud, and had been used for money laundering.

He took into account Evans’ guilty plea, his cooperation with gardaí and his remorse in handing down a fully-suspended sentence.

Ciaran Heneghan (38) of Drumfinn Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10, was previously handed a two-year suspended sentence for laundering other cheques taken from the woman.

He was also ordered to repay a total of €6,000 to the woman.

Judge Nolan ordered Heneghan’s wife, Tracey Heneghan (38), also of Drumfinn Rd, to be of good behaviour under Section 100 and adjourned the case until June.

She and her husband both pleaded guilty to laundering criminal proceeds by cashing cheques between July 2019 and March 2020.

The court heard Mr Heneghan was an employee of roofing and construction firm and was asked by his boss to cash cheques in his own and his wife’s name on behalf of the company.