A DISTRICT Court judge yesterday gave gardaí 10 minutes to shut down a “shebeen” and threatened to make a report to the Garda Ombudsman if it was not done immediately.
At Edenderry District Court yesterday Judge John Coughlan said it was a disgrace that The Long Bar, Edenderry, Co Offaly, had been trading without a licence and continued to trade while its owner stood before him.
He ordered gardaí to immediately close the premises and initially threatened to jail the tenant, Michael Iancu, who has been leasing the premises.
Last month, also at the court, State Solicitor John Hughes, who was prosecuting Mr Iancu for trading without a licence, asked him to rectify his situation or close his premises for the month-long adjournment to yesterday’s court.
He said the pub, which has no licence since 2009, was effectively operating as a shebeen and Judge Catherine Staines expressed her displeasure that Mr Iancu had been trading without a licence.
She was particularly unimpressed that he had left court early to open the pub and adjourned the case to March 26th for finalisation.
Yesterday, however, Judge Coughlan described Mr Iancu as a guest in this country and said the first thing he had done was defraud the Irish taxpayer.
Solicitor Donal Farrelly repeated previous submissions to Judge Staines, that his client, who is looking after two children, is in a dire financial situation. He said a licence application will be before the court in April and Mr Iancu had put him in funds to make the application.
In the witness box, after asking the judge to give him a chance to explain himself, Mr Iancu said he had come here from Romania via England on a holiday visa 15 years ago.
Judge Coughlan told him this was illegal, having come through the UK when there was no European agreement between Ireland and Romania, and told Insp Kieran Keyes it was “an absolute disgrace that a liquor licence was granted to someone who entered this country illegally”. However, Mr Iancu said he is legally in Ireland, that he has two children and pays his taxes here.
He said his accountant, who was from South Africa, had gone missing and he was trying to manage his accounts. He accepted his tax affairs were not in order.
Mr Iancu was also before the court regarding debts to suppliers Bulmers and MJ Gleeson. Mr Farrelly said his client had planned to make an offer to the companies based on his previous trading situation, but that had changed now.
Judge Coughlan adjourned all cases to June and ordered gardaí to check the legality of Mr Iancu’s status in Ireland.