A man convicted of three counts of possession of stolen tractors and one count of deception has been sentenced to two years and four months with the final nine months suspended, following a lengthy Circuit Court hearing.

John Alex Kane (50), of Cartron, Granard, Co Longford, appeared before Judge Kenneth Connolly at Longford Circuit Court last week, to face three charges of possession of stolen property, one charge of deception, one charge of criminal damage, and three counts of forgery.

On January 10, 2023, Mr Kane pleaded guilty on the basis of recklessness to the three counts of possession of stolen property, relating to a New Holland TM155 tractor, a John Deere 6220 tractor, and a Toyota Hilux jeep on dates between January and April 2018, in Rathcronan, Granard.

He also pleaded guilty to a count of deception between November 1, 2018, within the state, whereby he induced a man to purchase a John Deere tractor for €25,000.

A nolle prosequi was entered with regard to a count of criminal damage, while the three counts of forgery were marked taken into consideration.

Hilux

Detective Garda Brendan Lynn, giving evidence to the court, said that on February 27, 2018, a blue Toyota Hilux, was stolen from a farmer who was tending to a sick animal with a vet in Enniscorthy.

On March 14, 2018, on foot of a search warrant, gardaí discovered a blue Toyota Hilux on the premises of Kane’s of Granard with the registration VEZ4568. There was another black Hilux nearby which had no registration plates on and the chassis number removed.

Detective Garda Eugene O’Sullivan from the stolen vehicles unit carried out an inspection of the blue Hilux and established the chassis number had been interfered with and swapped over from the black Hilux.

During the course of the search, a number of documents were seized, including an NCT declaration form, which related to a New Holland TM155 tractor with a name that was known to Det Gda O’Sullivan.

An application was made to receive all documents related to the tractor, including a sales form from Malpas Tractors. However, investigators established that the tractor was never sold by Malpas Tractors.

The tractor, with the registration 05-LH-11508, was seized by gardaí in April 2018, Det Gda Lynn explained and, after a technical examination, it was established that the tractor had been stolen from a farmer in the UK in September 2015.

VRT cert

Mr Kane, when questioned, said he had purchased the tractor for €18,000 from a man in Louth or Armagh. He said he checked the chassis number on the door of the tractor with the VRT cert and it matched, but he conceded he should have carried out more checks.

Further investigations revealed an identical tractor with the registration NK05GYT was for sale at a Cheffins auction in England in February 2016.

“It would be our assumption that whoever stole the tractor in England was aware that the other tractor was for auction and took its identity for this tractor,” said Det Gda Lynn, explaining that both tractors were re-registered with the same registration details.

John Deere

Also seized in the course of the March 2018 search was a delivery note for a John Deere 6320 tractor with the registration GN03WVZ.

Det Gda O’Sullivan established that the reported keeper of the tractor was a man who tended at a donkey sanctuary in Wales. The same tractor is the subject of the count of deception on the indictment, whereby Mr Kane sold the vehicle to a man for €25,000.

In July 2018, a warrant was executed at the home of the man who had purchased the tractor from Mr Kane, and the tractor was seized. A technical examination was carried out and it was discovered the plate was glued on and the chassis number ground down and restamped.

Detective Garda O’Sullivan was able to identify some of the genuine chassis number and establish that the tractor was stolen from Devon in November 2017 and ultimately registered in January 2018 by an employee of Kane’s of Granard, and sold on for €25,000.

When this was put to Mr Kane, he made reparations of €25,000 to the man who had purchased the tractor.

I have no doubt he’s a very hardworking man, but I suspect if one is involved with vehicles from the age of 14 or 15, one is an expert at 50 years old.

In terms of the forgery counts, the court heard that, on July 6, 2017, a man attended at Lucan Garda Station and alleged that, in late December 2017, he had agreed to purchase a Land Rover Discovery in Kane’s of Granard.

The vehicle was on yellow plates at the time and the man had agreed to pay €22,000 excluding VAT. He was asked to hand over his passport, public services card and proof of address so that Mr Kane could arrange documentation.

However, the man carried out further inspections on the vehicle and chose not to buy it. He sought the return of his documents and Mr Kane said he’d return them, but he didn’t receive them for two months.

After the return of his documents, the man received documents for three vehicles re-registered in his name, and told gardaí he hadn’t purchased any of them.

Mr Kane has a total of 22 previous convictions, including eight for theft and fraud with regard to Pandemic Unemployment Payments (PUP).

Senior counsel for Mr Kane, Michael O’Higgins, pointed out that if this case were to go before a jury, it would be “a quagmire”.

He explained that his client is 50 years old, with a “really strong work ethic”, that he is married with four grown-up daughters, one of whom is in college, while the rest are professionals.

Further reparations

At his sentence hearing on Tuesday 23 July, Mr Kane had a total of €15,000 in court. Mr O’Higgins explained that he had already returned the €25,000 to the man who had purchased the John Deere tractor and was prepared to make further reparations to ensure the remaining losses are paid.

Passing judgment this afternoon, Judge Connolly stated he was “not at all satisfied” with any of the explanations Mr Kane gave to gardaí with regard to how he came into possession of the vehicles.

“I have no doubt he’s a very hardworking man, but I suspect if one is involved with vehicles from the age of 14 or 15, one is an expert at 50 years old,” he said, stressing that Mr Kane should have been able to carry out the necessary checks on the vehicles.

He noted that guilty pleas were entered on a reckless basis, meaning Mr Kane was aware of an avoidable risk but chose to proceed.

“I take the view that this was a case of extreme recklessness - that he was very well aware but he chose to proceed anyway,” said Judge Connolly.

Furthermore, while the counts of forgery were marked taken into consideration, Judge Connelly noted that they were “a very strange occurrence indeed”.

“This certainly has to be the nail in Mr Kane’s coffin of culpability, given he was the person in possession of the documents,” he said.

Turning to sentencing, Judge Connolly noted that Mr Kane was charged with possession of stolen goods - not with theft or handling stolen goods.

“But as Mr O’Higgins pointed out, if we didn’t have people willing to be in possession of stolen property, we would not have thieves,” he said.

“There were three vehicles involved, so Mr Kane was either very unlucky he ended up with three tampered vehicles, or he was very careless. Or the alternative option is it was part of a system that he was somewhat willing to be engaged in.

'No other explanations'

“I prefer the latter - that he knew exactly what he was doing. When one puts all the matters together, there’s no other explanation.”

In mitigation, he noted the guilty pleas which saved the case going to trial. He also noted Mr Kane's “very extensive and continuous work history”, as well as the fact he had €15,000 in court but said “it is allowing Mr Kane, who seems to have the means to provide that, to relieve himself of the deterrent”.

On the count of deception, he sentenced Mr Kane to two years and six months, suspending the entirety of the sentence for four years on the condition that he enter into a €500 bail bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for four years after his release from the sentence imposed on count one.

For count one, the possession of the New Holland TM155 tractor, he sentenced Mr Kane to two years and four months in prison with the final nine months suspended on the condition that he enter into a separate own bond for two years post-release.

Counts two and three were marked taken into consideration with regard to count one. A nolles prosequi was entered for count five, while counts, six, seven and eight were marked taken into consideration with regard to count four.

UK donkey sanctuary

Judge Connolly also ordered that €5,000 of the €15,000 in court today be donated to the UK donkey sanctuary, while the balance is to be returned to the Kane family “given the loss of his income”. A destruction order was made for the black Toyota Hilux.

He also opted to allow a stay of one week on the committal warrant so that Mr Kane could get his business affairs in order on the condition that he does not cross the border or leave the jurisdiction, that the €10,000 in court be lodged as bail, that he surrender all travel documents to Granard Garda Station by this evening, and that he sign on daily between now and next week.

“I could’ve done with more time. I’ve engines out of vehicles, so I could’ve done with more time,” Mr Kane told Judge Connolly as he entered into the bond.

Mr Kane is due to reappear before Judge Connolly on July 30, when the committal warrant will be executed and his prison term will begin.