Brian Tully, of North Circular Road, was found guilty and fined €200. Photo: Paddy Cummins
A man found with two stolen phones belonging to a garda told the officer he took them from his patrol van to “teach him a lesson” for leaving it open, a court heard.
Brian Tully (57) told the garda he was only “having a laugh” when he was confronted for having his personal and work phones, it was heard.
Tully denied handling stolen property, claiming in court he had picked the phones up off the ground when youths dropped them and that he only asked the garda “are you having a laugh?” when he was arrested.
Judge Bryan Smyth found him guilty and fined him €200.
Tully, of North Circular Road, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin District Court to handling stolen property on February 9 this year.
A garda said he attended an emergency call at North William Street and parked his official garda van on the street. He left his personal and state-issued phones in the van.
A second garda, Mark Tynan, said he was called to the scene to assist and saw Tully there. When asked what he was doing, Tully produced two phones from his pocket and said he was “only messing”. Gda Tynan returned them to the owner.
Describing what he heard Tully say, the owner said: “He was teaching me a lesson for leaving the van open and he was only having a laugh and would have given them back to me eventually.”
Defence barrister Ciara Murray put it to both gardaí that what Tully actually said was “you’re having a laugh” and he did not take the phones from the van.
Tully said in evidence he was walking past when he saw two youths at the garda van. He asked what they were doing, they ran off and Tully saw the phones on the ground. He told the court he picked them up and when Gda Tynan arrived he was holding them.
He said the garda told him to get into a patrol car and he replied: “Are you having a laugh?” Judge Smyth said the garda’s version was “more credible”.
