A JURY in the trial of a Limerick Garda accused of “sorting out” motoring offences for drivers were directed by the trial judge that they should find him not guilty of some of the charges.
Tom Flavin, (51), Rathkeale Garda Station, Co Limerick, should be acquitted of all of the charges as there is no real evidence against him, his barrister, senior counsel, Mark Nicholas, said in his closing speech to the jury on Thursday.
Mr Flavin went on trial before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court on May 27 accused of 22 counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Senior prosecuting counsel, Fiona Murphy, told the jury they were to find Mr Flavin not guilty of five of the charges and that they would consider verdicts on the 17 remaining counts.
Mr Flavin, who denies all the charges, is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by entering false motor insurance details on the Garda PULSE records computer system, in an attempt to frustrate potential prosecutions against persons for driving without insurance.
The drivers involved were stopped at routine Garda checkpoints around the country and asked by the garda present to produce their insurance and licence details at a nominated Garda station within ten days of the traffic stop.
All of the drivers asked to do this nominated Rathkeale garda station. Later, when the investigating garda in each of the stops carried out follow up checks of PULSE they were satisfied that details entered into the system indicated that the driver in each case was insured. However, the court heard the drivers were actually not insured and some were even prosecuted in court afterwards after pleading guilty to driving without insurance at the time they were stopped.
In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Nicholas SC, instructed by solicitor Dan O’Gorman, described Mr Flavin as an exemplary garda who had served with dedication in Croom and Rathkeale, Co Limerick, for many years.
Urging the jury to acquit Mr Flavin and not fall into the trap of speculation, Mr Nicholas added there was radically insufficient evidence to support a conviction.
“He served his community without blemish and without any disciplinary blots – you know that from the evidence. When other gardai came to give evidence, his superiors, they spoke of him very fondly and well – It wasn’t far off gushing and they spoke with knowledge,” Mr Nicholas told the jury.
The defence barrister spoke of the “unique challenges” gardai face in Rathkeale as opposed to other jurisdictions.
“People who live down here know it has an enormous population, transient, in and out at various times of the year. One policeman said (the population) quadruples and with that comes its own set of problems and own sets of vehicles – UK car registrations, UK insurance, some not insured, some not being entirely truthful.”
“We know that a certain number of times that people who were pulled up and stopped and asked for their documentation, produced bogus insurance certificates.”
Mr Nicholas said the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice is an extraordinarily, serious allegation to make against a serving Garda.
“That he (Mr Flavin) must have deliberately, knowing the (insurance) certificate to be false, inputted it into the system with the intention that it would frustrate a prosecution. There has been nothing close to this level of proof in this case whatsoever,” added Mr Nicholas.
The court heard evidence of persons providing documents at Rathkeale Garda station, however it was unclear who exactly produced what at the Garda station, and what exactly was produced.
Fiona Murphy SC, prosecuting, said all of the relevant data entries onto PULSE “were entered under the ID of Thomas Flavin”.
Ms Murphy told the jury that a statute of limitation of “six months” generally applied in respect of prosecuting offences of driving without insurance.
“It is the prosecution’s case that Tom Flavin knew they (the motorists involved) were not covered (by insurance) and that he entered the details onto PULSE to ensure they (appeared) covered,” Ms Murphy told the jury.
“Mr Flavin knew what he was doing, and he did so to ensure those persons were insured (on PULSE) when they were not, in order to ensure there was no prosecution,” Ms Murphy alleged.
The prosecuting barrister told the jury that Tom Flavin enjoyed the presumption of innocence and that the burden of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” was all on the prosecution while, Mr Flavin “has nothing to prove”.
Ms Murphy told the jury the prosecution case was “a circumstantial case, there is no direct evidence, instead the prosecution relies on indirect evidence”.
It is anticipated the jury will retire to consider its verdicts on each of the 17 counts on Friday.
