Man who forged learner driver permit jailed

Aaron Dunne, aged 21, of Grangeview Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, has been sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court following convictions for document fraud and criminal damage. Dunne pleaded guilty to ten counts of possessing and using a forged learner permit licence between June and November 2012, having arranged for another person to sit his theory test and then altering the resulting licence with his own photograph. When gardaí seized the false document, Dunne reported it lost and obtained a replacement through a local garda station without the seizure being checked on the database. He was sentenced to two and a half years for the fraud offences. Dunne also pleaded guilty to criminal damage and producing a baseball bat during an incident at a restaurant near Rathcoole in January 2013, receiving an additional consecutive sentence of two and a half years with eighteen months suspended. Judge Mary Ellen Ring noted the extended period of false document use posed a danger to the public.