Simon Gold gets suspended sentence for opening bank accounts

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Simon Gold was given a three-year sentence, suspended in full, for dishonestly opening two bank accounts. Judge Martin Nolan sentenced him on 23 November 2022, on condition that he be of good behaviour for three years. The proceedings were reported on 23 November 2022.

Gold pleaded guilty to two counts of opening bank accounts at locations in Dublin and Offaly on dates in July 2017 and March 2018. Detective Garda Sean Sheehan told the court that fake documents used to open the accounts were found during a search of Gold’s house in 2018.

Detective Garda Sheehan said around €80,000 passed through one account, while the other was mostly used for household expenses. The court heard that about €18,500 remained frozen in the first account and would be forfeited and returned to various third parties.

Gold had previously served four years of a seven-and-a-half-year sentence imposed in 2019 for money laundering. His counsel, Oisín Clarke BL, said Gold had completed courses in custody and had been released on restrictive conditions. Judge Nolan agreed that, had the bank account offences been dealt with at the time of the earlier hearing, he would not have imposed a longer prison term.