Suspended sentence handed down at Kilkenny court for fraud offences

A six-month suspended sentence was handed down to a man who pleaded guilty to 10 charges of possession of a false instrument contrary to the Theft and Fraud Offences Act.

Mark Fitton, Kilmacar, Ballyragget appeared before Kilkenny District Court charged with having custody of a false instrument at his home address on December 29, 2023 and of similar types offences committed within the State on August 8, 2021 and on April 4, 2020 and on seven other occasions on dates unknown within the State.

Evidence

Detective Garda Nora Cuddy of Kilkenny Garda Station told the court that on October 19, 2022 gardaí received a complaint from the Director of Regulation at Greyhound Racing Ireland that the defendant was racing greyhounds under a false name. Mr Herbert told gardaí that an allocation of prize money had been lodged into an account in the name of Anthony Fahey since 2014.

On December 29, 2021 an inspection took place of the suspect, Mark Fitton’s property and the defendant introduced himself as Anthony Fahey. Gardaí obtained an order and it was established that the name of the account opened in the credit union was in the name of Anthony Fahey and that this was a false name that was given by Mark Fitton.
Documents including kennel inspection reports, sampling documents and various applications were all signed by the defendant, Mark Fitton using the false name of Anthony Fahey.

Permission

On December 12, 2022 gardaí called to the home of the genuine Anthony Fahey who said that he had given the defendant permission to use his name and credit union account as he was a UK national with no account. Mr Fahey said that he had been advised to do this by a greyhound track manager but the manager told gardaí that this was not the case.
Anthony Fahey also told gardaí that he owned dogs with Mark Fitton and that any prize monies were halved between them.
Mr Fitton told gardaí that ‘this always happens’ and said that the track manager had said to use his friend’s name and account. The manager denies this, the garda told the court.

Joint owners

Solicitor Chris Hogan told the court that Anthony Fahey and Mark Fitton have known each other for 20 years. When they first went greyhound racing they were joint owners of a dog and Mark Fitton tried to race the dog but was not able as he did not have an Irish bank account. The dog was registered in the names of Anthony Fahey and Mark Fitton used to sign for him with the permission of Anthony Fahey.
Dogs were raced in over 200 races and from June 2014 to July 2021 €7031.20 in prize money was paid out, Det Gda Cuddy told the court.

The court heard the prize money was lodged, it would then be divided with Mark Fitton.

Mr Hogan told the court that once the matters before the court came to light in 2022 Mark Fitton admitted that he was not Anthony Fahey but Mark Fitton. Mr Hogan also remarked that Mark Fitton’s kennels were inspected on a regular basis and that there was no issue with animal welfare.

“Mark Fitton didn’t appreciate that he was committing an offence when he signed Anthony Fahey’s on an official document. It was under the misunderstanding that other people were doing it and said that the first time it was brought to his attention was in Shelbourne Park in October 2022. Both men attended the next day at the offices of Coursing Ireland with identification,” he said.

Mr Hogan also told the court that his client was not working and was in receipt of social welfare.

Judge’s remarks

Judge Geraldine Carthy remarked that the there was no doubt that the matters before the court are serious in nature. The judge convicted the defendant and imposed a six-month sentence which she suspended for 18 months and imposed fines totalling €1,000.

“I trust this will discourage any other individuals from behaving in this manner going forward,” she said.
Director of Regulation at Greyhound Racing Ireland, Patrick Herbert said he fully supported the judge’s decision.

“We are very thankful in the way he which the gardaí engaged with Greyhound Racing Ireland and we fully endorse the decision of the judge,” he added.