Michael Fahy

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Michael Fahy is an independent councillor in the Ireland, who was convicted of misappropriation of funds from Galway County Council. He was sentenced to a large fine and a year in prison, but the conviction was overturned on appeal, and Fahy now faces a retrial.

Fahy had been a Fianna Fáil member of Galway County Council since 1979,[1] and was the longest serving member of the council.[2] He resigned from Fianan Fail when the controversy broke.

[edit] Trial and sentence

He went on trial in March 2007 on seven counts of theft and fraud. The charges related to the misappropriation of over €7,055 of council funding when Fahy used public money to have over a mile of fencing erected on his private farm. A jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court sitting in Loughrea returned a verdict of guilty after just two-and-a-half hours' deliberation.[2]

On 20 March 2007, he was sentenced to 1 year in jail and fined €75,000.[3]

In passing sentence, Judge Raymond Groarke was scathing about Fahy, calling him a "determined fraudster" who had lied under oath and who had committed the crimes out of sheer greed. Groarke noted Fahy's income of over €60,000 a year as an insurance salesman, his remuneration as a county councillor, and his ownership of a farm and other "quite extensive property assets of great value".

The judge noted that not only had Fahy shown no remorse at any stage, he had unjustly implicated council officials and had earlier tried implicating, the innocent fencing contractor, Mr Byrne.

"He knowingly implicated a totally innocent man, leaving him exposed to vilification and ruin if the truth had not come out and he had called into question the honesty and integrity of council officials as well. Your bombast, bluster and bluff may well have been seen as such by those who witnessed your performance in the witness box, but all the while you gambled with the reputations of honest men in seeking an escape from the consequences of your delinquency."[3]

He continued:

"You have insulted and sullied the office and position of county councillor and you have belittled and rendered suspect the many hundred hard-working local and county councillors who go about their everyday work with diligence, care and honesty."[3]



He is currently appealing the sentence. Denied bail, he was due to start his jail term, but illness intervened and he has avoided arrest for failing to present himself at Loughrea Garda Station for incarceration.RTE News item on sentence imposed on Michael Fahy

[edit] References

  1. ^ Miriam Lord's Week. The Irish Times (1 December 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
  2. ^ a b Councillor found guilty of theft and fraud. The Irish Times (7 March 2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
  3. ^ a b c Ann Healy (20 March 2007). Councillor sentenced to year in jail, fined for fraud. The Irish Times. Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
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