A jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court took just 15 minutes to find a former Advance Tyre sales manager not guilty of conspiring to defraud An Garda Síochána.
Ben Meehan (47), of Bettyglen, Dublin, a former National Fleet Sales Manager at Advance Tyres, was discharged by Judge Yvonne Murphy after the jury acquitted him.
Mr Meehan had denied conspiring with his colleague, Michael Queenan and with Sgt Ronan Dunne to falsify figures so that Advance would retain the Garda contract in 1998.
Father (75) pleads guilty to rape
A 75-year-old former member of the Gallowglass Céilí Band who raped his daughter throughout her childhood has been jailed for 14 years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court. The father of five began abusing her when she was three years old. James McGarr, of Our Lady's Place, Naas, pleaded guilty to one charge of indecent assault and 31 sample charges of raping his daughter between 1961 and 1976.
She told gardaí her father raped her "hundreds of times", four or five times a week. She requested that he be named in media reports of the case.
Mr Justice Carney said that considering his age and poor state of health, McGarr would be unlikely to be at liberty during his lifetime.
He suspended the final three years of the sentence and also imposed a concurrent four years for the indecent assault and certified him as a sex offender.
Murder case delay granted
The State has been granted further time to complete the book of evidence in the case of a teenager who is charged with murder over the fatal stabbing of man in Blanchardstown last Halloween.
The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with the murder of Michael Murphy, a 31-year-old father of two from Fortlawn Avenue, in west Dublin, on October 31st, at the Blanchardstown shopping centre.