A 54-year-old grandmother received a four-year jail term, with the last two years suspended, at the Circuit Court in Waterford today for stealing €65,150 from a retired farmer.
Kathleen Lewis (55), Blackwater Heights, Youghal, Co Cork, at the court on February 6th, was found guilty of stealing the money from George Berry (88) in 2006 and 2007.
The charges arise out of an incident in the car park at a Centra store in Killeagh, Co Cork, in March 2006, when a car driven by Mr Berry was reputed to have damaged that belonging to Lewis.
Lewis, a mother of 10, accused Mr Berry, Ballylusky, Ballynoe in Co Cork, of hitting her car and contacted him on numerous occasions thereafter seeking money. If Mr Berry did not give her the money, she would contact the gardaí and solicitors, the trial in February heard.
She told Mr Berry, a single man who had been living alone at the time, that she had two of her grandchildren in the back of her car and that they were thrown into the front of the vehicle, such was the impact.
However, no medical reports have to date substantiated Lewis’s claims and during the trial, Det Garda Michael O’Donovan, a Garda vehicle inspector, was “one hundred per cent happy” that Mr Berry’s vehicle had suffered no front impact.
Mr Berry used his savings to pay Lewis, in addition to borrowing money from neighbours and friends.
Lewis was found guilty on 23 counts of theft at the court in February.
The court yesterday heard how Lewis, who suffers from a form of diabetes, through various efforts had raised a total of €18,800 as a partial repayment to Mr Berry, leaving a deficit of some €46,000.
However, Judge Rory MacCabe said that Mr Berry’s “only chance of seeing another shilling” was in the court today, after it emerged that Lewis was unsuccessful in raising any more money since a previous adjournment months ago.
Recourse through civil action “is a waste of time”, said Judge MacCabe yesterday.
Imposing the sentence, Judge MacCabe said that Ms Lewis showed no real remorse after taking “advantage of an elderly, vulnerable man”.
“I have little sympathy for Ms Lewis; she is not an upstanding member of society, she is a thief."
