Civil servant who forged driver licences ‘lucky’ to avoid jail, judge says

A civil servant who forged driver licences for Albanian and Italian nationals while working at a Dublin Motor Tax Office has avoided jail.

Lynne Adderley of Scribblestown Place, Rathoath Road, Finglas, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of making false instruments between October 1st, 2008 and April 1st, 2010 at the Motor Tax Office on the Ballymun Road.

Judge Martin Nolan gave her a three year suspended sentence and said Adderley was a "very lucky lady not to be going to jail" as she had betrayed the public's trust.

Judge Nolan said he did not believe Adderley's story that she was under pressure from her then partner Altin Meci, a Kosovo-born chip shop owner who was given a two year suspended sentence in relation to the forgeries on March 18th.

Judge Nolan said the expression he would use was “there were two of them in it.”

Garda Ronan McMorrow told prosecuting counsel Garett McCormack BL, the issue came to light because of an internal audit in the Motor Tax Office.

He said the method was that Adderley would reuse ‘certificates of competency’ from people who had genuinely passed their drivers test. These would be attached to applications from the drivers who surrendered their foreign licences.

These surrendered licences were not passed on to the Road Safety Authority but the drivers were still issued replacement full Irish licences. The cashier number in all the cases was the one issued to Adderley in the office.

Meci was paid €800-€1000 by each person and told the court in March that he split the money with Adderley.

Adderley had worked in the Department of Justice and Dublin City Council as a clerical officer prior to 2010.

Defending counsel James Dwyer BL, said that Adderley has suffered "collateral punishments" of losing her career and "public approbation" since she turned herself in.

Gerard Adderley, the woman's father, said she was now "a broken girl" who no longer had the same love for life as she had previously. He told the court that his daughter has suffered physical problems since her first pregnancy and there are medical issues in relation to her one year old and three year old children.

Judge Nolan said that he has always taken a strong view of white collar crime as it erodes trust in public services. He said Adderley had abused her position and called what she did a “betrayal” but said that her children deserved a mother.

He said there can be dire consequences when trust in public services erodes and it was a “close run thing” that he did not send her to prison.