A former building society manager who was cleared of charges of fraudulently laundering €1.1 million for builders has had his application for the costs of his trial rejected by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Shane Sutton (42), of Glenbrien, The Lodge, Howth Road, Clontarf, was found not guilty on day three of his recent trial when Judge Nolan directed the jury to acquit him on all 47 counts alleging money laundering the proceeds of a tax-fraud scam for members of the construction industry.
Mr Sutton had denied handling 63 cheques "knowing or believing them to directly or indirectly represent another person's criminal activity" on dates between December 28th, 2000 and April 4th, 2003. It was alleged the cheques were made out to third parties in the building trade who were operating a tax-fraud scam.
The costs application on his behalf was made by defence counsel Diarmaid McGuinness SC (with Seán Guerin), who quoted previous cases in which the Court of Criminal Appeal had awarded costs against the DPP and the State.
Mr McGuinness submitted that his client was entitled to recover his costs because, he said, "the State didn't recognise the infirmity of its case until it looked at what it had to offer and decided then it had no case".
"It is irrelevant for the State to claim it had other evidence in this case because it led none of it," he said.
Mr McGuinness said the jury "heard no evidence at all" against Mr Sutton and "in these circumstances it would be an injustice to be refused even a proportion of my costs".
Judge Nolan ruled against the application after refusing to allow prosecuting counsel, Colm O' Briain, "to refer the court to matters in the book of evidence".
Mr O'Briain said the defence had not applied "to have the court decide on the prima facie case" against Mr Sutton. He said the DPP was entitled to bring the case to trial and Mr Sutton was not entitled to his costs.
"The State cannot now bring in what was not before the jury," Mr McGuinness interjected.
Judge Nolan agreed and said he had come to the conclusion that the State thought it had "a prosecutable and good case" but that "as in so many cases, things arise in the course of the hearing and action has to be taken".
He added that if the problems had been known at an early stage they could have been sorted out and he must therefore refuse Mr Sutton's application for costs.
Judge Nolan had initially directed the jury to acquit Mr Sutton on 26 of the charges due to the prosecution's difficulty in proving the origin of cheques.