“I consider the crime you committed to be as low as you can get” – Judge
By Brendan Grehan
A CLONDALKIN man who managed to get a pensioner to pay him €3570 for unnecessary roof repairs has been sentenced to 240 hours community service by Blanchardstown Court.
If Charles O’Brien fails to complete his community service, he will serve six months jail in default.
O’Brien, aged 38, with an address at Rosebank Place, Clondalkin, had pleaded guilty to three charges of getting a named individual to pay him €570, €1500 and €1500 respectively for unnecessary roof repairs at an address at Cappaghmore Estate, Clondalkin, all on a date unknown between March 11 and March 18, 2016.
In March, O’Brien had paid back €2,000. He was before Judge David McHugh for payment of the remaining €1,570 and for sentencing.
O’Brien’s solicitor, Simon Fleming, said his client had paid the €1,570 back.
Judge McHugh told O’Brien: “I consider the crime you committed to be as low as you can get.
It is despicable. I would jail you under normal circumstances”.
The court had heard that O’Brien and another man had called to an elderly man’s house in Cappaghmore Estate in Clondalkin and told the man that the roof needed repairing when it didn’t.
Between March 11, 2016 and March 18, 2016 , the injured party paid €3,570 over to O’Brien.
At one stage O’Brien produced two rotten bits of wood that he claimed he had taken from the roof when he hadn’t.
Judge McHugh asked if O’Brien was sorry for what he had done.Mr Fleming replied: “He is genuinely contrite. He has genuine remorse”.
Judge McHugh said he would sentence O’Brien to maximum amount of community service 240 hours with six months jail in default.
