State spent hundreds of thousands to bring former solicitor to justice

After a long battle with extradition and more than four years in an Australian prison, former Dublin solicitor Vincent O'Donoghue walked from the Central Criminal Court yesterday having been given 220 hours of community service.

The sentencing was in lieu of two years in prison for fraudulently converting cheques worth just over €44,000 (£34,828). The cheques were supposed to be used as deposits on properties in Dublin and Belfast in the late 1990s.

The 62-year-old had served more than four years in Hakea Prison in Western Australia and four months in Cloverhill on his return to Ireland in 2013, before obtaining bail.

The former solicitor turned property developer was 49 when the file against him first went to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2002. He had been arrested by the Garda in May 2000 following complaints about his property transactions. He had also been in custody in Northern Ireland, before a case against him there was dismissed.

O’Donoghue was questioned again in Dublin in 2001 and, while his file was with the DPP, he left the country with his partner and young child to set up a new life in Australia. He applied for permanent residency there in 2003 having been nominated under the Employer Nominated Scheme as a legal consultant. He and his partner had three more children.

Gardaí formally sought his extradition in 2003 and in 2004, O’Donoghue was found in Perth by Australian police. He began a long battle to resist extradition, appealing again and again on points of law to Australia’s federal courts, representing himself. In April 2009, a magistrate decided he should be extradited and O’Donoghue was remanded in custody at Hakea Prison, near Perth. He continued his fight before being sent back to Ireland in 2013.

Until late February this year, O’Donoghue maintained his innocence. He said that as soon as he was cleared, he would sue Australian and Irish authorities.

He also set himself up as a mediator in areas including bankruptcy and financial stress, in Smithfield, Dublin.

His trial was due to begin in March, but two weeks before it started, he pleaded guilty to three charges. Yesterday, O’Donoghue said he respected the orders, finding and directions of the court. The man who used to appear in the media driving a red Bentley around Killiney and who now claims social welfare, probably cost the State hundreds of thousands of euros to bring to justice.

O’Donoghue has separated from his partner and his children remain in Australia. He cost his victims more than €44,000 along with a lot of stress. He also cost himself years behind bars, some of which would have been avoided if he had returned in 2004.