The Court of Appeal has quashed Paschal Kelly’s conviction on a count involving possession of a stolen white Volkswagen Transporter van bearing false registration plates, finding that the prosecution had not bridged a gap in the evidence about how the vehicle came into his possession.
The judgment, delivered on 26 July 2018 by President Birmingham, followed an appeal against convictions on five counts from a ten-count indictment. At the start of the appeal hearing, the parties agreed that the appeal could be allowed on Counts 2, 3, 4 and 10. The court therefore considered the remaining live count, Count 1, and did not address the other grounds of appeal in detail.
At trial, the van’s owner, John Riordan, said he lent it to an employee, Leonard Fitzpatrick, on 15 July 2014. Riordan later learned it was missing, and an insurance company paid out for it. The Court of Appeal noted there was no direct evidence about how or when the van was taken, and Fitzpatrick did not give evidence. The court said it was unclear how the van left the electrician’s possession or when it came into Kelly’s possession.
Kelly was found driving the van on 14 October 2014, several months after Fitzpatrick had lost possession of it. The vehicle had false plates. The court also noted trial evidence that Patrick Laroche had his own white van bearing those plates. It said the circumstances around the van’s disappearance and Kelly’s knowledge of its status were thinly evidenced.
The court concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove a fundamental part of its case. It held that the application for a direction on Count 1 should have succeeded, found the conviction unsafe, allowed the appeal and quashed that conviction. It said there was no need to consider the remaining grounds in detail.