Suspended sentence for accountant who defrauded a farmer

By Isabel Hayes

An accountant and property developer who defrauded a farmer by taking out a €54,000 mortgage on his behalf and using it to pay off his debts nearly 20 years ago has been handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

Francis Joseph Woods (75) applied for a mortgage for an investment property in Manchester on the injured party’s behalf in 2007 in his capacity as the director of a property development company, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

The farmer, who used Woods’ accountancy firm and knew Woods personally since he had managed his own father’s business, paid a deposit of €14,000 and signed a loan document after meeting Woods and a mortgage broker in a pub.

When he didn’t hear anything further in relation to the investment property, the farmer asked for his deposit back, which was eventually returned to him in 2008. However, the following year, the man was contacted by Ulster Bank and informed he was in debt to the mortgage amount of €54,500 plus interest.

Woods, of Damestown, The Naul, Dublin, pleaded guilty to one count of defrauding the man on a date between August 2007 and November 2007. A mortgage drawdown letter purporting to be signed by the injured party was uncovered during the garda investigation.

It is the State’s case that Woods used the mortgage money to pay costs related to his property development business.

The garda investigation started in 2015 when the farmer made a complaint to gardaí. Woods was questioned in 2019 and made some admissions, telling gardaí he was in financial difficulty at the time. He has no previous convictions apart from some minor road traffic matters from 25 years ago.

A victim impact statement was handed into court but not read aloud.

Sentencing Woods, Judge Orla Crowe said that Woods had been a “trusted adviser” to the injured party, and breached this trust, which was an aggravating factor.

Judge Crowe said this was a “grievous breach of trust by a professional qualified person in a fiduciary position” who had “abused that fiduciary position”.

She noted the victim impact statement outlined the “terrible impact” on the injured party, who still owes a “significant amount” of money.

The judge said the injured party wanted Woods to know that he trusted him and had considered him to be a “pillar of the community”.

She said the mitigation included the guilty plea, a token of remorse of €10,000 and that he has not come to recent negative garda attention.

The judge said she also took into account Woods’s health issues and the contents of testimonials, many of which spoke of the defendant’s honesty, adding that the court noted he was dishonest on this occasion, and “fell into temptation”.

She imposed a sentence of 18 months, suspended on strict conditions.