A 34-year-old man who tried to cash a £5,500 cheque in Derry with a fake driving licence as identification has 190 previous convictions.
Martin McDonagh of Slievecoole Park, Omagh, appeared before Derry Magistrates Court charged with false representation trying to cash a cheque of £5,500, possession of a fake driving licence for use in fraud and obstructing a police officer in the course of his duty.
The offences took place last week on August 19.
The court heard that at around 2pm last Friday police received a phone call from staff at The Money Shop on Waterloo Street saying that a man had tried to cash a cheque for £5,500 using a fake driving licence as identification.
They said the photo used on the licence was that of the man in the shop but the name on the licence was registered to a man in Dublin.
When police arrived at the shop, McDonagh was smoking a cigarette outside.
When questioned by police, he confirmed that he had tried to cash a cheque for £5,500 and that it had been given to him by the Derry legal firm, Dermot Walker, Madden & Co.
McDonagh offered to accompany police to the solicitors’ office to confirm this and police took up that offer.
Staff at the office confirmed that they had given McDonagh a cheque for £5,500 and that he had used the driving licence as a means of identification.
Police were told the legal firm had been representing McDonagh in court since March following a road traffic accident in which he was a front seat passenger.
Despite the matter not having been reported to police, the insurance company had paid out.
McDonagh was taken to the police station for questioning and his fingerprints were taken and registered him as Martin McDonagh and not the name on the fake driving licence.
McDonagh, a father-of-three, made full admissions once confronted with the information and gave police his address as Slievecoole Park, Omagh.
When police went to the address, however, the property was unlocked and, had no power and was unfurnished.
Police discovered that McDonagh has 190 previous convictions in Northern Ireland including fraud and lives in various locations around Northern Ireland, England and the Republic of Ireland and would have ‘access to high class fraudulent mechanisms’.
The defence solicitor said that he realised this was a ‘difficult application’ given McDonagh’s ‘lengthy criminal record’.
He said that McDonagh’s father and wife were in court with £1,000 of cash surety that they were willing to offer for his bail and that McDonagh was willing to surrender his passport and driving licence to assuage any fears of absconding.
The defence said that McDonagh had made full admissions in police interview.
District Judge Barney McElholm said that this case ‘raises the spectre of a widespread insurance fraud problem in Northern Ireland and possibly in other parts of the UK and the Republic of Ireland’.
He added that there had been a ‘high degree of pre-meditation, planning and structure’ and that ‘the risk of flight is inordinately high’.
Judge McElholm said that maybe a surety of £15,000 would quell fears of McDonagh absconding on bail but that £1,000 surety was not enough to deter McDonagh.
Bail was refused and McDonagh was remanded in custody to appear back before the court again on September 8 via video link from prison.
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