James Sidney pictured outside Wexford Circuit Court. Pic: Jim Campbell
A WELL known New Ross businessman has been found guilty of five counts of theft at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court.
The case of James Sidney, 7 Woodlands Grove, New Ross, came to a conclusion before Judge Barry Hickson and a jury of eight men and four women on Thursday afternoon.
The defendant was charged with five counts of theft contrary to Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud offences) Act 2001.
The offences related to the sale of vehicles belonging to five individuals and to whom money was promised but never received.
The sums involved included €8,000 (to Tomasz Dudek), €17,000 (to Paul Burke), €17,000 (to Thomas Dunphy), €3,500 (to Robert Bartowski) and €7,000 (to Bernard Brookwell).
All of the offences were committed at Sidney’s Garage, Marshmeadows, New Ross, on various dates in 2014.
When charging the jury on Thursday morning Judge Hickson told them that the facts of the case seemed “fairly straight forward”.
He told the jurors to treat each charge serparately and said that while they were adjudicating on facts they could “draw on inferences” made from the evidence presented.
“You cannot convict on suspicion and you cannot convict on conjecture,” said the judge.
“There are five complainants,” he said.
“These are people who did business with Mr. Sidney and were entitled to believe they were going to be paid the sum of money they were told they would be paid,” he added.
Judge Hickson told the jurors they could not reach a decision as a result of “feeling sorry” for the alleged victims or through being “angry towards Mr. Sidney”.
“That is emotion and you are to be robotic, to a degree, in this,” he said.
The judge also referred to the fact that in their respective summings up Counsels for the Prosecution and the Defence had mentioned the onus of proof.
“Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” he said.
“It’s a fundamental principle of our law,” he added.
With regard the defendant’s ‘not guilty’ pleas the judge said: “As a consequence of that he is presumed to be innocent in the eyes of the law. That lasts throughout the trial unless it’s overun by the evidence and [he] is found by the jury to be guilty.”
“The onus is never on the assused man to prove his innocence,” said the judge.
The jury was reminded that although he was under no obligation to do so the defendant had chosen to give his version of events to the Gardai.
“He came into the witness box and gave evidence and was cross-examined on that,” said the judge.
“You must consider it with all the evidence in the case and the burden of proof is on the prosecution,” he added.
The judge then outlined the individual sums involved in each of the five charges.
He also referred to the defendant’s own words during the trial with regard to the money and how his business had suffered: “In his own words ‘it got swallowed up’.”
“He had a difficulty at the time with his own business,” said Judge Hickson.
“The premises was flooded with around €300,000 worth of damage to his business – as his insurance broker said,” he added.
The jury was asked to question if, “as Mr. Sidney himself said, he was sleepwalking into a situation” where the people involved lost their money.
The jury retired to begin its deliberations at 11.23 a.m. and returned after lunch to ask for clarity on one aspect of the law under which the charges were being brought.
It then retired again before returning at 3.54 p.m. to deliver a majority verdict of 10 to 2 on each of the five counts.
The judge thanked the jurors for their time in the case and relieved them from serving again for five years.
He adjourned sentencing in the case until “the Michealmas sessions” in November and commented: “I will deal with the matter leniently if he is in a position to make restitution.”
Taking into account the fact the defendant had no previous convictions the judge said: “If he has money to offer the people who lost money I will take a [lenient] view.”
