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A case against Dungarvan, Co Waterford-based shed supplier Walter Murphy was dismissed in Dungarvan District Court on Monday.
Mr Murphy was charged under section four of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001, and the case was heard by Judge Terence Finn.
It related to a contract between Mr Murphy, of Colligan, Dungarvan, trading as Stonebridge Steel Ltd, and Michael Morrissey of Farranamanagh House Stud, Cashel, Co Tipperary.
Mr Morrissey and his brother Niall engaged Mr Murphy to supply the materials for a general-purpose shed, having seen his advert on donedeal.ie, the court heard.
Mr Murphy visited the stud farm on 30 October, 2014. He and Niall Morrissey signed a contract, which was shown in court. On Stonebridge Steel headed paper, it detailed the shed materials, dimensions and total cost of €11,650 plus 23% VAT. Michael Morrissey paid the agreed €5,000 deposit by electronic bank transfer on the following Wednesday, 5 November 2014.
Niall Morrissey told the court the shed materials were to be delivered within seven to 10 days. The Morrisseys had other people engaged to do the groundworks and erect the shed.
Niall Morrissey told the court “three weeks went by” without any materials being delivered. He made repeated phone calls to Walter Murphy, as well as calling to his premises at his home in Colligan, Dungarvan. Mr Murphy intimated to him that he was under pressure, which Morrissey said was “fair enough”.
Materials for the shed were delivered on Saturday 6 December 2014.
Giving evidence, Michael Morrissey said when Mr Murphy delivered steel to the site, he said there was “some steel short, which would be delivered next week”.
On the following Wednesday, 10 December 2014, Mr Murphy told Niall Morrissey he needed more money.
On 12 December 2014, Michael Morrissey made a further €2,000 bank transfer to Mr Murphy, “against my better judgement”, bringing the total amount paid to €7,000.
“The balance of the steel was to arrive the following week but it never arrived and it became self-evident that it wouldn’t arrive,” Michael Morrissey said in evidence.
Repeated attempts to contact Mr Murphy by phone and by text message were unsuccessful, so Niall Morrissey called to Mr Murphy’s premises.
During that visit, Mr Murphy agreed to pay the Morrisseys €2,000 which they would use to order the outstanding shed material. He wrote a €2,000 cheque on the Stonebridge Steel account, post-dated to 15 January 2015, and advised Niall Morrissey not to lodge it until that date.
Mr Murphy compiled a list of materials which the Morrisseys ordered from providers Heiton Buckley in Waterford. The Heiton Buckley bill amounted to €2,300. Further materials were sourced from Halcon Steel in Co Galway to complete the shed.
Michael Morrissey lodged the cheque on 13 January 2015, but it was returned to him by post from AIB in Dungarvan having been countermanded (stopped) by Mr Murphy at 10am on 15 January, 2015.
Niall Morrissey visited Mr Murphy’s premises after the cheque was returned by the bank and told Mr Murphy that if the matter was not sorted, “he would hear from the Gardaí or Revenue”.
The defence case
Mr Murphy, present in court, did not give evidence. Junior counsel Ms Suzanne Gorey, instructed by solicitor David Burke, said her client was “pestered” by the Morrisseys.
She said Mr Murphy had been contacted by the Morrisseys at least 10 to 15 times following the first delivery and that Niall Morrissey visited his premises in December.
Mr Murphy had felt “under duress and intimidated” by the visit to his premises, which was also his home. Mr Murphy had written the €2,000 cheque to the Morrisseys as an act of good faith, with a view to reaching a resolution.
The contract signed by Walter Murphy and Niall Morrissey did not include any reference to delivery date, she highlighted.
The garda interview
Garda Thomas Sheehy, who arrested Walter Murphy by appointment in October 2015 for the alleged theft of €2,000 from Michael Morrissey, provided a memo of Mr Murphy’s interview to the court.
The court heard that during the interview Mr Murphy said he felt pressured by the Morrisseys and they had him “plagued”.
Asked why he gave the €2,000 cheque to Niall Morrissey, Mr Murphy said he did it “to get him out of the yard”.
He rejected the suggestion that by stopping the post-dated cheque, he never intended to pay the €2,000. “I intended to pay,” he insisted. “It was never my intention to defraud.”
Mr Murphy told gardaí he could not remember the details of emails from Michael Morrissey. “I tend to block out unpleasant people,” he said.
Mr Murphy told the gardaí that on the morning of his arrest, he had offered the Morrisseys €2,000 in full and final settlement.
Closing argument
Solicitor Ms Gorey said the matter should never have been brought to the court because it was a civil matter, a breach of contract, and did not fall into the bracket of a Section 4 offence. She said there were “an awful lot of matters that Garda Sheehy did not investigate and made executive decisions about Walter Murphy” and that key documents were not disclosed to the defence. The gardaí responded that the stopping of the post-dated cheque was a deliberate attempt to deprive the Morrisseys of their money, which was theft and a Section 4 offence.
Judge Terence Finn, in summarising the case, said the matter should never have been brought to the criminal court and that it should have gone through the civil court.
He took exception to Michael Morrissey’s actions, saying: “Michael Morrissey believes the State should do his dirty work for him. Threatening the gardaí and Revenue on Walter Murphy I find to be audacious in the extreme and Mr Morrissey does himself no credit.
“The apparatus of the State, in the form of the Garda Síochána, has been abused in a fashion that I find outlandish,” Judge Finn said.
He dismissed the case against Walter Murphy, repeating that it should never have been brought to the criminal court.
The judge refused an application by Walter Murphy for legal aid.
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