A MAN who "disappeared" three years ago after leaving a suicide note in his car has been jailed for one year for his role in a £44,000 bank fraud.
Michael S. Bentham spent three months "in hell" in a South African prison before being extradited last July, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
A notorious Dublin criminal, who acted as a debt collector for a builder owed money by Bentham, organised the fraud by getting him to lodge a forged bank draft purportedly for Stg£88,000 in his own account at AIB Bank, South Richmond Street, Dublin.
Although Bentham withdrew £30,000 in cash on the same day he lodged the draft, he got nothing from it personally and finished up penniless when a building society repossessed the property into which he had invested an inheritance.
A sum of £14,000 was forwarded from the draft to an unwitting solicitor allegedly as a deposit on a bogus property sale organised by the criminal.
The £14,000 was intended as Betham's "cut" to alleviate his financial difficulties with a building society. However, the money was returned almost immediately to AIB Bank when the fraud was detected, the court heard.
Judge Kevin Haugh was told by Detective Garda Denis O'Leary there were nine features on the draft which indicated forgery.
Bentham (38), formerly of Belgrave Square, Dublin, admitted he obtained £44,000 on January 19th, 1993, with intent to defraud.
Det Gda O'Leary told prosecuting counsel Mr Paul McDermott that Bentham was due to go on trial on November 15th, 1993 but disappeared in September. His car was found near the sea at Salterstown, Castlebellingham, Co Louth, with a full set of clothes and a suicide note.
Bentham was reported as missing in October by his wife and as wanted the following January by the gardai.
The authorities learned from Colonel Henry Fouchet of Interpol that Bentham entered South Africa on September 24th, 1993. He was detained last April and extradited in July. He had no previous convictions.
Det Gda O'Leary agreed with the defence counsel that Bentham's desperation led him into being "conned" by the criminal. He had now lost his inheritance, his property, and his family and was financially wiped-out
Mr Peart said his client had punished himself and had spent three months in South Africa. He was also in custody here since his extradition.
Judge Haugh said Bentham was naive and was preyed on by someone more clever than him. He was naive enough to return to the bank for the balance of the forged draft.
However, the judge said the crime had to be marked with a sentence which he backdated to April last when Bentham was detained in South Africa.