AN INDIAN national has been jailed for three years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for his role in a mobile phone fraud.
Conversations could be clearly heard on 10 of the 088 network cellular phones in a city centre apartment raided by gardai, Judge Michael Moriarty was told.
Gardai and Telecom Eireann officials found Said Mohamed from Bombay and another Asian with a total of 11 mobile phones being used illegally in international calls. The raid followed an investigation initiated when a Telecom customer could not access his own phone number.
Mohamed (31), a minicab driver with an address in Bolton, England, pleaded guilty to causing Telecom Eireann a loss of up to £34,000 in the operation from October 19th to October 25th, 1995. He had no previous convictions.
Det Sgt Michael Clifford agreed with Mr Felix McEnroy, defending, that the defendant had played a minor role in the operation. He was paid a wage just to connect calls and had nothing to do with setting it up.
Mr McEnroy said his client was a Muslim native of Bombay who came to England in 1983. He had been in custody since October 1995, and life was extremely difficult for him due to his religion and culture.
Judge Moriarty accepted there were grounds for exceptional leniency in this case. He suspended the final 27 months of the three year sentence on condition that Mohamed remained out of Ireland following his release.