Dundalk man jailed for selling passport used by Daniel Kinahan

A local man who applied for a false passport in his own name, which was used by Daniel Kinahan, was jailed for 15 months at Dundalk Circuit Court last week.

Seamus Walsh with an address at Mountain View Crescent, Dundalk pleaded guilty to the sale of his passport to an unknown person after December 5th 2011.

The 43 year old did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody four days earlier when a bench warrant was executed, following his arrest at Quay Street post office.

Last Tuesday his Defence barrister Ronan O’Carroll B.L told Judge Dara Hayes that his client had failed to attend in April for the finalisation of his sentence, as he had "panicked".

He added that Mr. Walsh had not been truthful to his solicitor in saying that he was attending his aunt’s funeral.

Mr. O’Carroll said the case attracted a great deal of media coverage much to his client’s surprise.

In April, before issuing the bench warrant, Judge Hayes noted that the Probation report indicated that contrary to the plea of mitigation that was made in February about the defendant acting as a carer for his  elderly mother, she had been in a care home since last August.

The barrister last week explained that his client had been his mother’s carer for in excess of 12 years and was in receipt of the carer's allowance.

However, Judge Hayes replied “The difficulty is what the court was told in February is that he is looking after his mother" and the Defence had also handed in a letter from a sister of Mr. Walsh which echoed this.

Mr. O’Carroll acknowledged that there was no getting away from the fact that the court was told his client was looking after his mother at that time and given Mr. Walsh’s failure to appear and the revelation in relation to his mother, his character would be diminished in the eyes of the court.

Judge Hayes replied “It creates some doubt in the degree of remorse” that was being expressed.

However, the barrister stressed that his client’s admissions were significant and urged the court to take into consideration the views of Det Garda Feidhlim McKenna of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation on the manner in which Mr. Walsh dealt with the matter and the type of role he played.

Judge Hayes acknowledged that the Det. Garda McKenna does not believe Mr. Walsh to be involved in organised crime, nor was he involved with the person who was the ultimate recipient of the passport.

It was revoked in October 2017 which Judge Hayes said allowed for its criminal use for up to six years. 

Mr. O’Carroll said the last few days in custody have really brought to bear his responsibilities and he wants to get a job when he is released from custody.

Judge Hayes said while he could accept that the defendant panicked, of greater concern was the plea of mitigation that he was his mother’s carer.

Judge Hayes said the court had previously heard how the defendant had been offered €2,000 to make the passport application, which he told gardai had happened at a time when he was ‘off his head on drugs’.

The Judge also said that the defendant had amended his social welfare claim in March and is no longer receiving the carer's allowance.

The court heard that Mr. Walsh had undergone three urinalysis tests in April as directed at the original sentencing hearing in February, after the Defence submitted he has been clean of drugs for a number of years. 

Two of the results were negative but a third which was positive for morphine, related to him taking medication for back pain which contained codeine.

Judge Hayes added the court had been told in February that Mr. Walsh was assisting with training Under 10s but it was difficult to accept a letter purporting to be from Sean O’Mahony’s GFC as it was "an unsigned and unverified document".

The judge said the offence in question was serious as it involved acquiring a passport for nefarious purposes as it could only have been for criminal use.

He imposed a two and a half year sentence and suspended the final 15 months which he backdated to June 23rd when the defendant went into custody.