A RETIRED school teacher who received a two year suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to larceny has challenged the State's refusal to give him a pension.
Mr Jeremiah Lovett (48), of Parkside, Ferrycarrig Road, Wexford, was the principal of Ramsgrange Community School, Co Wexford, from 1977 until November 1993 when he was suspended for misappropriation of school funds.
In the High Court yesterday Mr Justice Kelly, who reserved judgment, was told that the Department of Education estimated that about £60,000 was misappropriated, of which £6,490 was repaid before Mr Lovett was sentenced and that the Minister was considering how to recover the balance.
In a submission it was claimed that Mr Lovett received ex gratia payments of £54,189, equivalent to the salary he would have received between October 1993 and April 1995. In March 1995 he notified the Minister of his retirement due to ill health. This was approved with effect from November 1993.
Last July he was sentenced and a month later was told no further payments would be made, as under the secondary teachers' superannuation scheme a person sentenced to more than 12 months jail forfeited their pension.
Mr Lovett was entitled to £34,360 gratuity under the scheme and his pension for November 1993 to July 1995 was £22,115. The ex gratia payment already received by Mr Lovett was deducted, leaving a balance of £2,286 due to him.
This sum was not paid because in January 1994 Mr Lovett authorised the Minister to deduct from whatever gratuity might become payable to him on his retirement such sums as may be agreed to make, good any deficiency in the accounts of the school attributable to mismanagement on my part".
Mr Gerard Durcan SC, for Lovett, said they were the powers given to the for Education in paragraph 8 (1) of the 1935 amended teachers superannuation scheme.
Mr Durcan said the powers, given to the Minister in respect of a teachers' pension schemes were in Section 3 of the Teachers Superannuation Act 1928. It did not give the Minister power to include in the scheme a provision for forfeiting a pension.
Once granted a pension Mr Lovett became entitled to a property right under the Constitution, said Mr Durcan. The provisions of Paragraph 8 brought about a situation that teachers coming, within the secondary teachers pension scheme suffered a much greater penalty than others who committed the same crime and received the same sentence.
The State claimed it had the power to take away Mr Lovett's pension rights under Paragraph 8 and that he forfeited his pension after his sentence.
Mr Sean O'Breacain, a principal officer in the Department of Education, in an affidavit said that for months before his suspension, Mr Lovett had been absent on grounds of ill health. He believed Mr Lovett pleaded guilty to three charges arising from financial irregularities discovered in the school's finances.
He wrote to Mr Lovett last June that his application for early retirement on grounds of disability had been approved with effect from November 1993.
On Mr Lovett's conviction and sentence for over 12 months, the Minister had no discretion relating to, the forfeiture of Mr Lovett's pension. The provision was not unfair.