The Court of Appeal has upheld a seven-year prison sentence imposed on Breifne O'Brien for a prolonged investment fraud that caused losses of more than €9 million to five men.
O'Brien pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in June 2014 to seven counts of deception and seven counts of theft. They were sample counts from a 45-count indictment covering offending between 2003 and 2009.
The court heard that O'Brien operated what was described as a Ponzi or pyramid scheme. He persuaded investors to transfer money into accounts he controlled after telling them the funds would remain safely on deposit while supposedly backing property or other business deals.
The schemes were fictitious. Money was instead diverted to debts and personal expenditure, including construction work on O'Brien's home.
Louis Dowley lost €3,065,350 through supposed deals involving a Manchester shopping centre, linen shipments and properties in Hamburg and Paris. Evan Newell lost €4.4 million, Martin O'Brien €685,000, Pat Doyle €500,000 and Daniel Maher €450,000.
O'Brien argued on appeal that the sentencing judge had failed to give enough weight to rehabilitation and other mitigating factors. These included his guilty plea, previous good character, remorse, cooperation, efforts at restitution and the loss of his marriage, social standing and livelihood.
The Court of Appeal rejected those grounds. It accepted that O'Brien was unlikely to reoffend and that rehabilitation had effectively occurred before sentence, but said this was a mitigating factor rather than something requiring part of the sentence to be suspended.
The court also noted that the guilty plea came late, after substantial trial preparation and international evidence-gathering had already taken place.
It held that the offences were planned, sophisticated and sustained over years, involved enormous losses and serious breaches of trust, and consumed significant Garda resources. The seven-year sentence was therefore upheld and the appeal dismissed.