Banana Republic

Last week in the courts there were a few fraud cases of a type more usually associated with Banana Republic regimes. It would seem that some people just can't resist dipping their fingers in the till. A bank cashier, an immigration clerk and a tax official were sentenced in Dublin for using their positions of trust to line their own pockets. Cashier Darren McComiskey used a card-reader to skim 87 customers' details at the busy College Green branch in the city-centre. Cloned cards were then used to take €320,000 from the accounts between October 2006 and February 2007. He blamed an eastern European nightclub bouncer for forcing him to take part in the scam. Lucky for McComiskey his three-year sentence was suspended.
The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation were also involved in the second case of a bent official, this time Department of Justice employee Dara Revins. He teamed up with Chinese man Bin Yang to grant visa extensions for cash. Yang hand over €1,500 for each visa but chargd his countrymen €4,000. Yang is on the run having skipped bail while Revins is now serving an 18-month stretch behind bars.
Last up before the courts was Revenue Commission employee David Leonard who put in bogus medical claims on behalf of people he knew. He split the rebated cash with them. He pocketed €20,000 between April 2004 to February 2005. Colleagues blew the whistle when they noticed Leonard had logged onto these case files an unusually high number of times. Leonard got a two-year suspended sentence and a €10,000 fine.
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