Carlow businessman on trial charged with handling stolen power tools

A CARLOW businessman has gone on trial charged with handling a large assortment of stolen power tools and later providing false invoices to gardaí in order to prove ownership of those tools. Charles Dunne of Ace Fencing Ltd also faces a charge of perverting the course of justice.

Mr Dunne (48) of Rathmore, Tullow, Carlow pleaded not guilty at Carlow Circuit Criminal Court to having a large assortment of power tools in such circumstances that it is reasonable to conclude that he knew that the property was stolen or was reckless as to whether it was stolen on 13 January 2019. He further pleaded not guilty that he did without lawful authority or excuse possess stolen property, a large assortment of tools and power tools in such circumstances that it is reasonable to conclude that he knew or was reckless as to whether it was stolen on the same date.

The jury were told that these two counts, a charge of handling stolen property and a charge of being in possession of stolen property, are considered alternative counts.

Mr Dunne also pleaded not guilty to 20 charges of using a false instrument at Carlow Garda Station on dates between January and February 2019, in that he provided fraudulent invoices, which was and which he believed to be a false instrument with the intention of inducing another person to accept it as genuine and by reason of so accepting the said instrument to do some act or to make some omission or to provide some service to the prejudice of that person or any other person.

Finally, Mr Dunne pleaded not guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice at Carlow Garda Station between January 2019 and February 2019 by providing false documents in a deliberate attempt to obstruct a Garda criminal investigation, to obstruct the administration of justice or to pervert the course of justice.

Detective Sergeant Brian Sheeran told Vincent Heneghan SC, prosecuting, that gardaí were in receipt of confidential information in relation to the presence of stolen property at Mr Dunne’s yard in Tullow in January 2019. A warrant was secured and Det Sgt Sheeran said he was present when the yard was searched. He described seeing a large number of tools in pallets in a number of different sheds.

He said the items were seized and photographed. An inventory was later compiled of all the suspected stolen tools.

Det Sgt Sheeran told the jury that Mr Dunne later provided about 60 invoices to gardaí in relation to the tools that had been seized from Rathmore. This was to support a police property application by Mr Dunne to have the suspected stolen tools returned to him.

He said one of those invoices related to an auctioneering company called Ganly Craigie 2000 Ltd. He said the items on the invoice correlated with items on the inventory compiled by the gardaí. It included an air compressor, an air-powered nail gun and two lengths of hose.

A second invoice from the same company was also presented but Det Sgt Sheeran said that, while the content of that invoice is illegible, he cross-referenced it back to a certain tool on the gardaí’s inventory.

He said he contacted the company by email in November 2020. He learned that Ganly Craigie 2000 Ltd had been taken over by Merlin Car Auctions and spoke to the owner, Patrick O’Reilly. Mr O’Reilly gave evidence via video link. He told the jury that he had access to all the data from Ganly Craigie 2000.

He said an invoice presented to the gardaí as the sale to Mr Dunne of the air compressor and nail gun actually related back to an invoice for the sale of eight steel plates on their company’s system. He confirmed that the second invoice, which had illegible content on it, with a particular date and invoice number, was also not the same invoice that had been issued by the company.

Mr O’Reilly agreed with Paul Commiskey O’Keefe BL, defending, that Ganly Craigie 2000 used a digital recording system and that he had complete access to everything from the company on a server. He further agreed that bidders have to pay for the goods before they leave the yard and that the goods on the pallet have to match that which is on the invoice.

Det Sgt Sheeran was recalled to outline invoices supplied by Mr Dunne to the gardaí in relation to what he said was the purchase of tools from Hennessy Auctioneers. The items on these invoices included a number of Bosch drills, a consaw and a sheep shearers.

Det Sgt Sheeran said he contacted John Hennessy in Hennessy Auctioneers and later took a statement from him. He said Mr Hennessy was able to point out “anomalies” between the legitimate invoices drawn up by his company and those supplied by Mr Dunne to the gardaí.

Mr Hennessy told the jury that at the time of these invoices being issued, Hennessy Auctioneers was operating under a manual system. He said Saturdays would be auction days and items that were not sold would be kept for the following auction.

He told the jury that he had to “trawl” through old dockets to correlate the invoices provided by Hennessy Auctioneers with those that Mr Dunne had supplied to gardaí.

When asked about the purchase of a particular tool by Mr Dunne in August 2013, Mr Hennessy could not confirm that Mr Dunne did not buy anything that month because, he said, “my memory would not go back that far”.

He agreed with Mr Heneghan SC that a number of the invoices supplied by Mr Dunne to the gardaí had words altered on them.

In reference to another invoice, he said Mr Dunne did buy items at the auction that day but said that they are not the items contained on the invoice before the trial.

Mr Hennessy was referred to a particular invoice dated November 2016 and prosecuting counsel Mr Heneghan SC suggested that Mr Dunne did not purchase anything that particular day. Mr Hennessy said he could not find a copy of an invoice to support a purchase by Mr Dunne that day. “We are going back to a manual system. To the best of my ability, I could not find a docket to match it,” he said.

Mr Heneghan SC read a statement to the jury from a person who identified some of the tools that had been confiscated by the gardaí as his own. He said they had been taken during the course of a burglary.

The trial continues before Judge Sinéad McMullan and a jury at Carlow Circuit Criminal Court.