A 70-YEAR-OLD widow had her entire savings wiped out by a former nursing home carer who persuaded her to invest €60,000 in a start-up company.
Michael Harrington, of Cronan Lawn, Shannon, Co Clare, was jailed for eight months at Limerick District Court yesterday, after he pleaded guilty to two separate charges of deception.
The 25-year-old admitted inducing sums of money totalling €6,200 from Teresa Gribbins (70) who lives at Sancta Maria Nursing Home, Cratloe, Co Clare, on two separate dates in 2008 and 2009.
Before imposing the jail term Judge Tom O’Donnell said it was the most “appalling case of deception” he has come across in all his years on the bench.
Mr Harrington pleaded guilty to deceiving Mrs Gribbins out of €5,000 at Sarsfield Street in Limerick on March 23rd, 2009, and €1,200 at Punches Hotel Limerick on May 30th, 2008.
Det Garda Stephen Ryan from Shannon Garda station, told the court that the accused befriended Mrs Gribbins who has no immediate family while he was working at the nursing home, which he left in 2007.
Det Garda Ryan said the 25-year-old stayed in contact with the pensioner after he finished working at the nursing home and that Mrs Gribbins had in good faith offered substantial sums to invest in the accused man’s medical supply company after he told her the banks refused to give him a loan.
The court heard the pensioner, who is originally from Moyross in Limerick city, had received a settlement of €60,000 from the State Redress Board.
The 70-year-old continued to invest in the accused man’s company after he told her that he needed funds to secure 17 new contracts and that if he secured these contracts he would be able to return her investments, the court heard.
Mrs Gribbins who invested more than €60,000 in the company was offered a 10 per cent return plus €2,000 per annum on top of this return.
Evidence was also given that Harrington contacted the widow on one occasion and said he had come from his accountant and that his company was in profit.
Det Garda Ryan told the court there was no accountant or contracts and said the accused man had used the injured party’s money to fund his lifestyle.
He said Harrington had provided Mrs Gribbins with false and misleading information about his company which was involved in the sale and supply of medical equipment.
The pensioner, who had lost her husband and her daughter before she went into the nursing home, had no immediate family and no way of checking out the information she had been given, he said.
The court heard the matter finally came to a head when two of Mrs Gribbins’s direct debits for her nursing home care hadn’t been paid and the manager of the home contacted the Garda on her behalf.
In her evidence to the court Mrs Gribbins told the court she was left with nothing. “I trusted him. He gained my confidence. I gave him all my money, but nothing came back,” she explained.
Judge O’Donnell said he would be singularly failing in his duty if he did not impose a custodial sentence.