Court of Appeal: Former Garda loses appeal against corruption conviction

About this case:

• Judgment:
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In April 2011, Mr John Joe Synnott was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with two years suspended, after he was convicted by the unanimous decision of a jury at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court on three counts:

Wexford Circuit Criminal Court

At the centre of the case was an alleged road traffic accident, causing material damage only, which was said to have occurred at Newtown Road, Wexford on 9 September 2007 where an Audi A4, said to have been owned and driven by Beverly Redmond, allegedly collided with a parked and unattended Subaru Impreza owned by Lorraine Quinlan.

The jury heard that Mr Synnott was a lifelong friend of Joe Redmond (a known criminal in New Ross), and that Beverly Redmond, the owner and alleged driver of the Audi vehicle was Joe Redmond’s wife, from whom he was separated. Further, the owner of the Subaru vehicle was Joe Redmond’s girlfriend, Lorraine Quinlan. Mr Synnott was therefore indirectly connected to both vehicle owners, and was at all material times a member of An Garda Síochána stationed at Wexford Garda Station.

In the Circuit Court, the prosecution case was that there was no such accident, and that the claim that there was one was to be the basis of a fraudulent insurance claim.

Beverly Redmond and Lorraine Quinlan both made claims against the relevant insurance companies, and received €9,910 and €13,422 respectively, in compensation for damage allegedly caused. The ultimate payer was AXA Insurance Co Ltd in circumstances where their insured, Beverly Redmond, was clearly going to be held liable if her vehicle had indeed struck Lorraine Quinlan’s parked car.

In the course of the closing speech on behalf of the prosecution the jury were expressly told, at different points, that “the prosecution allege that JJ Synnott aided and abetted Mr Redmond and his cohorts in the commission of a deception against AXA which we all know occurred” and that “it’s the prosecution case that, rolling all the strands of the evidence together, it becomes very clear that Mr Synnott was involved in the deception upon AXA and rendered that deception material assistance in the formation and delivery of false reports upon which the insurance company it would be known would be placing reliance upon.”

Court of Appeal

Mr Synnott’s Notice of Appeal pled numerous grounds, including assertions that the trial judge erred in law and in fact in failing:

Delivering the judgment of the three-judge Court, Justice Edwards stated that Mr Synnott’s arguments in relation to the above pleadings were misconceived, untenable, and to be argued at all was to “miss the point, or perhaps to deliberately ignore it, that the case against the appellant was at all times based upon derivative liability, either on the basis that he had acted in common design with Beverly Redmond, Lorraine Quinlan and Joe Redmond, alternatively had assisted or encouraged them in their common design”.

Dismissing the appeal, the Court was “unable to uphold” any of Mr Synnott’s grounds of appeal against his conviction.