A man from Co Offaly was ordered to pay €5,000 to charity after being convicted of handling a New Holland 8360 stolen from a Tullamore bog in 2016.

The Co Offaly man used false documentation relating to the vehicle and deceived a farmer into paying €14,750 for it.

John Fogarty, 38, of the Island, Ballycumber, Tullamore, Co Offaly, pleaded guilty to the three offences and was sentenced at Tullamore Circuit Court last Wednesday.

Offender’s claims

Mr Fogarty claimed to have bought the tractor with a friend in 2016, with each paying €5,000 after finding it advertised online. He maintained there was no bonnet on the tractor at this time and a secondhand one was bought.

A farmer from Co Clare subsequently bought the tractor in December 2017 from Mr Fogarty, but became aware of irregularities in the vehicle’s documentation after attempting to tax it.

The farmer found that another tractor in Co Kildare had the same registration as the one he had just bought, and he alerted Gardaí.

Forensic examination

A technical and forensic examination of both tractors was undertaken by Detective Eugene O’Sullivan, from the Garda Stolen Vehicle Unit, and it was determined that the Kildare tractor had the correct registration.

It was found also that the stolen New Holland had been re-sprayed with terracotta-coloured paint and fitted with false number plates.

The tractor had been fitted with a tracker, but the device was removed after it was stolen from Co Offaly. The court heard that the farmer in Co Clare who bought the tractor from Mr Fogarty had been repaid in full by him.

Mr Fogarty had no previous convictions.