Six years for 'cloned' van racket is upheld

A man from Carrick-on-Shannon has lost an appeal against his six-year prison sentence for involvement in a sophisticated online fraud involving cloned stolen vans. Tom Reilly, aged 50, pleaded guilty to four sample counts of handling stolen property between August 2009 and June 2010. He was sentenced by Judge John Aylmer in May 2019, with the Court of Appeal upholding that decision today. The scheme involved vans stolen in the UK being brought to Ireland and sold to unsuspecting buyers through online platforms, resulting in losses totalling €50,150 across eight purchases. Evidence indicated that fraudulent logbooks were obtained using details from legitimate vehicles, which were then used to clone the stolen vans before importation to Ireland. The Court of Appeal found no error in principle in the original sentencing, confirming the six-year term was justified given the scale and sophistication of the operation.