Gardaí at the Command and Control Centre had to log-on with their own secret password for their work to be registered in their own name, a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury has been told.
Insp Michael O'Leary said, however, that a member could work at a console there which was still logged-on in someone else's name. He told Mr Patrick McGrath, prosecuting, that in his 10 years as a sergeant with one of the centre's four units under his supervision he had to tell gardaí to sign-on. It was part of his supervisory duty to ensure everyone was signed-on.
Insp O'Leary, who was giving evidence on day-four of the trial of a garda for alleged overtime fraud, said members used paper wedges on the then new Pulse system which they found very annoying because it would log off after about five minutes and it took perhaps 90 seconds to sign on again. He would stop them doing this.
Mr John Kelleher (33), of Mountainview, Cartron Close, Sligo and formerly of Kenilworth Lane, Harold's Cross, Dublin, denies seven charges of obtaining sums of money by false pretences that he had worked all the periods claimed on dates from July 1999 to August 2000 while he was a member of unit B at the Garda Command and Control Centre.
Insp O'Leary agreed with Mr Eanna Molloy SC (with Mr Kerida Naidoo BL) defending, that Command and Control Centre members could give services without being signed-on. He said temporary vacancies were covered by overtime and as the workload grew over the years, there was "more and more overtime". The authorities were aware of this increasing use of overtime.
The hearing continues before Judge Frank O'Donnell.