Limerick man was 'trying to make a few pound' before Christmas, trial hears
Paul Curtin from Cappamore is on trial for stealing 10 cars, deception and criminal damage at Limerick Circuit Court
A JURY of six women and six men are expected to start considering a verdict tomorrow in the trial of a man who is accused of cutting a secure gate and stealing 10 cars to have them scrapped.
Paul Curtin (46) with an address in Inis Bui, Cappamore is charged with criminal damage, the theft of 10 cars and obtaining money by deception.
It’s alleged that on December 20, 2019, Mr Curtin cut through a welded gate at the site where Bawn Motors previously operated from on the Ballysimon Road, and that he removed 10 cars and had them scrapped.
The court heard that Mr Curtin was arrested by arrangement and interviewed twice on March 2, 2020.
In garda interviews, the defendant told gardaí that he was self-employed with a recovery business and also operated a cash for cars service.
He told gardaí: “I’d get cars to the scrapyard and try to earn a day’s wage from it.”
He said that he was never asked at the scrapyard for proof of ownership.
Mr Curtin told gardaí that he had contacted Stephen O’Sullivan of Bawn Motors on Facebook messenger about cars that were in the yard on the Ballysimon Road and that Mr O’Sullivan told him to take the cars away.
“I knew he had a lot of cars for scrap,” he told gardaí.
When he went to the yard, he said he didn’t know Bawn Motors had been leasing the yard from John Moloney and that he cut through the welded gate to gain access through a back gate.
He had bought a chain and lock to secure it again and he removed “five or six cars.”
He told gardaí in relation to proof of ownership that he “assumed they belonged to him” (Stephen O’Sullivan of Bawn Motors).
The court heard that Mr Curtin was paid €960 for the cars, which were scrapped and that upon hearing from the scrapyard, who had been contacted by Judy Moloney who said the cars were stolen, that he returned the money.
In concluding remarks at his garda interview in 2020, Mr Curtin said he wanted to “say sorry for causing any aggro (aggression) to Ms Moloney. If I had known they were her cars, I wouldn’t have gone in there.”
In a closing statement for the prosecution, barrister John O’Sullivan BL, told the jurors that in relation to the criminal damage that “it has been established that Paul Curtin damaged the gate - that he cut it.”
He also said that the number of cars taken from the property seems to have been understated in interviews with gardaí.
“There was no justification for taking these cars away in the manner in which he did,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
In his closing statement for the accused, barrister Nicholas Hall BL accepted that the injured party Judy Moloney was “rightly aggrieved in the circumstances.”
Mr Hall pointed out that his client did cut the gate, but that he replaced the lock and the gate was again “effectively secured.”
He said that the cars were not removed “in the cover of darkness” and that it all happened “in the middle of the day.”
Mr Hall put it to the jurors that “Mr Curtin was indeed acting honestly in the circumstances.”
It is expected that the jury will retire tomorrow, Thursday, to consider a verdict, once Judge Colin Daly has given his charge.