Galway Co Councillor Michael Fahy has won his appeal against his conviction for fraud and attempted theft and has been freed on bail pending a retrial.
Ordering a retrial today, the Court of Criminal Appeal said it was doing so because it was in the public interest that the conduct of public representatives should be subject to examination.
The three judge CCA, with Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Kevin Feeney and Ms Justice Mary Irvine, said the appeal court was setting aside the conviction because the way in which inadmissible evidence was introduced at the trial had created "a real and substantial risk of an unfair trial."
The case is now expected to be returned to Galway Circuit Criminal Court for retrial.
Cllr Fahy (56), Ardrahan, Co Galway was jailed last March for a total of twelve months and fined €75,000 after a jury found him guilty of seven charges under the Larceny and Theft and Fraud Offences Acts.
The charges related to more than a mile of fencing erected on Cllr Fahy's land in following a Community Involvement Scheme operated by Galway County Council.
Cllr Fahy commenced his prison sentence at the end of April and appealed his conviction on the grounds that certain prosecution evidence should not have been put before the jury during his five day trial.
Counsel for Cllr Fahy Mr Martin Giblin claimed that a memo made of a conversation between Cllr Fahy and Mr John Morgan, a senior executive with Galway Co Council who gave evidence during the trial for the prosecution was prejudicial to Cllr Fahy and contrary to Criminal Procedures legislation.
The memo was not a contemporaneous note and was among documents furnished to the defence in advance of the trial. However, the defence was told it would not be part of the prosecution case and it was not listed as an exhibit in the book of evidence until the morning of the trial itself. The defence said they were taken by surprise and the jury should have been discharged.
The CCA ruled that the trial judge, Judge Raymond Groarke, had erred by allowing the trial continue in the circumstances. The appeal court said the memo evidence was prejudicial and the judge "ought to have discharged the jury."
In the current climate of "allegations of improper conduct" against politicians before tribunals, the jury could have drawn inferences from the memo prejudicial to Cllr Fahy, the appeal court said.
Mr Giblin queried the decision to order a retrial and said there should be no retrial given Cllr's Fahy's family circumstances, where he cares for his mother who is approaching 100 and the fact that a "substantial" part of the sentence had already been served.
However, Mr Justice Finnegan said a retrial was being ordered because it was "in the public interest" that the conduct of public representatives should be subject to examination.