COURTS: A businessman forged the signature of a bank manager on bank guarantees to keep two cigarette companies supplying his shop with their products.
Wade McGinley, 46, of 1 Tiramacool, Buncrana appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court.
The father-of-seven pleaded guilty to forgery in illegally obtaining cigarettes valued at more than €24,000.
The court heard how Mr McGinley had two contracts with tobacco companies John Player and JTI Gallaher, and in 2009 he began having difficulty making payments to both companies.
It was at this stage that John Player and JTI Gallaher sent reps to Mr McGinley’s shop with bank guarantee forms.
Mr McGinley assured both reps that the bank guarantees would be signed and he then sent the form to his bank which was AIB.
AIB refused to authorise the guarantees and sent a letter back to the defendant informing him of their decision.
McGinley then scanned the AIB bank stamp from his computer onto the bank guarantees, and forged the signature of the branch manager Joe Doherty.
Detective Garda Mark Doherty outlined that in 2011 they had been contacted by a department at AIB Fraud Prevention Group concerning transactions involving McGinley and tobacco companies “JT Ireland” and “John Players”.
The sum of money involved for JT Ireland was more than €8,000 while John Players was for more €16,000.
He said in 2009 the companies had sought bank guarantees from McGinley in order to supply him with tobacco for his shop but the two guarantees supplied were forgeries not issued by AIB in Buncrana.
McGinley was interviewed by AIB Buncrana branch manager, Mr Joe Doherty, in November 2010 after the tobacco companies contacted the bank to invoke the guarantees due to the non payment by the shop owner.
McGinley was interviewed by Gardaí in 2011 and admitted forging the signature of Mr Doherty as well as the bank stamp which he copied on his home computer.
He told gardaí he believed the document was “only an old bit of paper” and “not important” but he was sorry to have wasted the officers’ time.
He also said he would pay back the money owed but the court heard John Players were repaid just over €4,000 of the €16,000 and JT Ireland have not been repaid anything to date.
Barrister Damian Crawford BL said his client had “catastrophic debts” but he co-operated fully with the investigation.
Character witness Mr Noel Bradley, a former Missionary priest, gave evidence that he had known McGinley for more than 30 years.
He said McGinley took over the running of the shop from his mother but did not possess her acumen for business and was “naive” with money but was a “kind, gentle” person.
Judge John O’Hagan said it was a “very deliberate crime” where he not only kept the money owed but also the profits derived from the sale of the cigarettes.
He said if McGinley repaid €3,000 each to both companies by December he would consider a community service order. If the money was not paid “all avenues” were open to him, he added.