Man jailed for €900,000 fraudulent cattle scheme

By Sonya McLean

A carpenter who claimed he could buy cattle from a bank following the repossession of farms and sell them on for a significant profit has been jailed for scamming two men out of over €900,000.

David Nally (43) of Clonard Street, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to six charges of inducing two men to invest in a fictitious cattle and machinery purchasing scheme on dates between 2014 and 2016.

Simon Matthews BL, prosecuting, told the court that the pleas were sample pleas and representative of a period of offending during which Nally got one man to invest over €700,000 and a second man to invest just over €218,000.

The court heard that during the scam, Nally did give back the men some of the supposed profits meaning that while the first victim is still owed just over €390,000, the second man has incurred a loss of €175,000.

There are currently High Court proceedings in place against Nally as a result of the fraud.

Detective Garda Ross Rowan said the first man was known to both Nally and his father.

In March 2014, Nally approached this man and told him he knew of a man working in the bank who was going to sell him cattle at knock down prices, as the herd had come from farms that had been re-possessed by the bank.

The plan was that Nally would then wait an agreed period before he could sell on the cattle for a substantial profit.

This man invested a number of times and was provided with certain documentation from Nally. Over the course of the two years, he did get some money paid back but he became concerned that Nally was not purchasing as much cattle as he had claimed.

He approached Nally and the man gave him assurances that everything was above board. He didn’t have confidence in Nally’s assurances and ultimately reported him in October 2017 which led to the investigation.

Det Gda Rowan said while this man’s complaint was being looked into, gardaí became aware of a second man who had also invested in the scheme.

Nally had also provided him with some hand-written agreements and other documentation but not as “official looking” as that which had been provided to the first man.

The garda investigation was extensive and involved analysis of bank accounts and inspections of cattle registration.

It was discovered that although Nally had claimed at one point that he had purchased over 3,000 cattle, the maximum he had ever actually bought was 230.

Gardaí first spoke to Nally in February 2018, when he made counter allegations against one of the victims. He was interviewed again in August 2018 and September 2019, but Det Gda Rowan said “no real admissions were made”.

Victim impact statements were handed into court but not read out.

Det Gda Rowan agreed with Judge Martin Nolan that Nally never bought an animal from the bank.

Judge Nolan said it was “a fraudulent cattle purchase scheme” that Nally had “concocted to entice these two men to give him money”.

He said: “Nally was happily working as a carpenter, and he had a side interest in agriculture.”

He said he intended on buying and selling a couple of cattle and “either he thought it up or it evolved but he entered into and designed a fraudulent scheme and induced two people to give him a substantial amount of money to buy fictitious cattle from the bank at a low rate and to sell them at a much higher rate to make a substantial profit”.

Judge Nolan said Nally undoubtedly bought and sold a certain amount of cattle and incurred expenses.

He said it was a serious crime to defraud these men in this way but accepted that he pleaded guilty, had a lack of previous convictions, had a good work history and was very industrious.

Judge Nolan said that Nally “undoubtedly deserved a custodial sentence” as it was a serious deception that deceived people he knew.

He imposed consecutive sentences totalling six years before he suspended the final 18 months of the term on strict conditions including that Nally hand over €300,000 to be distributed proportionally to the two victims within three months.

Det Gda Rowan agreed with Deirdre Flannery BL, defending, that her client’s plea was valuable to the prosecution as it prevented what would have been a lengthy and complicated trial. It also saved the second victim from having to travel from overseas to give evidence.

He accepted that Nally ultimately agreed that a deception had occurred and that he had not told the truth about what he was spending the money on.

He acknowledged that this cattle trading was a side deal that Nally had been working on, in addition to his job as a carpenter.

Det Gda Rowan further accepted that Nally found himself spending a lot of money on fencing, feed, the renting of land and vet bills.

He said he couldn’t confirm if any money Nally made from the sale of cattle was ploughed back into the business to cover these expenses – “I can’t comment on where the money went,” Det Gda Rowan said.

He accepted that the total loss to the first victim is €390,000 and accepted that €200,000 has been lodged with the High Court. The second man is at a loss of €175,000.

Det Gda Rowan accepted that the scheme ultimately rendered Nally bankrupt. He continues to work, running a construction company that is owned by his wife. The company has a contract for social housing and is doing well.

Ms Flannery said her client had €100,000 to reimburse the victim, which is available to him as a loan from his wife’s company.

She said Nally had used the invested funds to pay for the running costs of the cattle dealing and accepted that while he claimed that he was purchasing Limousin cattle he was in fact buying crossbreeds.

Ms Flannery said her client had no background in farming but it became a hobby for him when he asked for three cattle for his ninth birthday.

She acknowledged that he never bought cattle from the bank but had bought them from “other agencies”.

“Pride got in the way of him walking away,” Ms Flannery said.

“He hoped he would get it moving but it never got going. He ended up bankrupt as a result, but he acknowledges that was through his own actions,” counsel continued.