Fraudster jailed for role in €160k scam on finance companies

A man from Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, has been sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court following his guilty plea to fraud charges. Thomas Cullen pleaded guilty to two counts of making a gain by deception in May 2017 when he entered into leasing arrangements with two finance companies as part of a scheme involving false documentation. The court heard that false driving licences and forged business records were used to secure funding totalling €160,820 from Capital Flow Finance and Finance Ireland. Neither finance company recovered the funds, and the excavators allegedly being leased were never located. Judge Martin Nolan imposed a headline sentence of five years before reduction. The case forms part of a cross-border investigation into plant machinery leasing fraud, with a second defendant from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, similarly sentenced last month. The court noted Cullen occupied a peripheral role within the operation.