A former Garda National Immigration Bureau employee has gone on trial in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court charged with taking bribes for issuing fraudulent visas to Chinese students.
John Kennedy (69), Willow Crest, Trees Avenue, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of receiving bribes of €500 as well as a bottle of wine and a meal voucher between December 2002 and January 2003.
Prosecuting counsel Thomas O'Connell SC told the jury it was alleged that Mr Kennedy was part of a system where Chinese students, who had come to Ireland to study English, would pay large sums of money to language schools for false attendance certificates which they would use to apply for an extension to their visa.
He said Mr Kennedy, in his role as a clerical officer in the Garda National Immigration Bureau, would process these claims and ensure the students received a visa.
Mr O'Connell said at no time did Mr Kennedy ask for money for this but on four occasions he met with "agents" acting for the language schools who gave him sums of €500.
He said Mr Kennedy operated a hatch at the bureau's offices on Burgh Quay where non-EU citizens would apply for visa extensions. Applicants would take a number and wait for it to appear on screen.
Evidence would be given that on one occasion when there was a group of Chinese students present, Mr Kennedy bypassed the numbering system and used hand signals to tell certain students to come up to his hatch where he would process their applications.
Mr O'Connell said the court would hear evidence from Lee Yung Feng, who met Mr Sweeney when his girlfriend went to get her visa renewed. Mr Lee's girlfriend had been attending a language school but did not have the necessary 80 per cent attendance rate required to get her visa renewed.
Mr Kennedy allegedly told Mr Lee he was willing to help Chinese students with visas and said he should get a letter from another language school which Mr O'Connell described as "little more than a front for extracting money from students".
Mr O'Connell said Mr Lee then became an agent for Chinese students who wanted visa renewals. The students would allegedly pay him €2,000, of which he would take €400 and the remainder would go to the language school which issued a fraudulent attendance record.
Mr Lee would then contact Mr Kennedy by text to put him in contact with the students.
The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan.