A WOMAN who forged a credit union loan document has been warned by a judge that the forgery could have resulted in imprisonment for contempt of court.
Start Mortgages Ltd secured an order for possession of a house at Old Callan Road, Kilkenny, against Eileen Tynan but a stay was placed on the order for a month.
Ms Tynan had secured a mortgage of €174,000 in December 2005 and there were arrears of €33,000, the High Court was told.
Ronan Murphy SC, for Start Mortgages, said that on October 24th, Ms Tynan had produced a letter in court purporting to be issued by her credit union which indicated a loan application for €45,000 had been approved.
The credit union later confirmed the letter was a forgery and had been taken from a five-year-old document.
Ms Tynan told Mr Justice John MacMenamin that she regretted what had happened and it was a “foolish” attempt to avoid a possession order being granted over her home.
Mr Murphy asked the judge to grant a possession order without any stay. There was no doubt Ms Tynan had lied repeatedly, he said.
Mr Justice MacMenamin said a deliberate and conscious effort had been made to deceive the court, not once but a number of times. Ms Tynan knew the document was a forgery. Not only was she being profoundly foolish but she was also self-delusional.
In another court, he said, the papers would be sent to the DPP and if contempt of court was proven, it could result in a term of imprisonment. She thought she could pull the wool over everybody’s eyes, the judge told Ms Tynan.
The judge granted an order to recover possession of the premises. However, saying he was not going to throw her out on the street, he placed a stay on the order for one month only.
“I am so sorry,” Ms Tynan said, but the judge said it was “too late now”. “If you had asked for a stay of three or six months, you would have got it because the courts are very understanding in these cases.” However, the courts could not tolerate dishonesty, he added.