Irish Border racket uncoveres stolen goods sold at auction
Published January 13th, 2006
A judge was told by a garda officer yesterday during the trial of a Co Monaghan man, who pleaded guilty to charges of handling more than €41,000 worth of stolen machinery, that there was currently a huge racket operating in Ireland.
The racket was said to involve the theft of machinery on one side of the border, which is then sold at auctions on the other side.
Garda Sergeant Gabriel Bell, Monaghan, told Judge John O’Hagan at a sitting of the Circuit Criminal Court in Monaghan that machinery stolen in the southern border area was taken as far away as Co Antrim and other property stolen in the Antrim area was sold in the Irish midlands, as far away as Tullamore.
A 12 month jail sentence was imposed on Geoffrey Russell (35), with an address at Emy, Emyvale, who pleaded guilty to a series of charges relating to various items of stolen machinery valued at €41,817 which were recovered by gardai during searches at his premises between September 9 and September 28, 2004.
