A MOTHER of two who chartered two planes under false pretences to bring rugby fans to matches, has been given a two- year suspended at Limerick Circuit Court. Pamela Hickey, the 38-year-old mother-of-two, who presented false documents to UK charter company to hire the planes on 2004 and 2005,
was said to have conned the company out of €100,000. With an address at Ashford, Patrickswell, Limerick, Ms Hickey pleaded guilty to charges of forgery and deception,by obtaining the services of the Air Charter Services company in December 2004 to bring 180 Munster fans on a return flight from Shannon to Toulouse.
Suffering a loss of €77,000 over Ms Hickey not paying for the service, proceedings were brought against her for deception.
A second matter was before the court where Monarch Airlines, and its sister company First Aviation Limited, again under false pretences, were conned into bringing Munster fans on a return flight from Shannon to Gatwick.
Limerick Circuit Court heard that the company lost £34,000 sterling as a result of the deception.
Ms Hickey, the court heard, provided that companies with a false name, false AIB paylink transfer funds documents where it was alleged that the monies had been paid over for the charter flight.
Judge Carroll Moran said while the accused was involved in criminal behaviour and in a chain of deception covering two acts of dishonesty, not one, she was otherwise of good character, and not of a criminal disposition.
During sentencing, however, he said that the amounts of money involved were significant, and warranted a prison sentence. He imposed a two-year suspended sentence.
He took into account her guilty plea and the fact that she had lost her home, her business, and her life partner, and had also suffered a great deal of odium as a result of the widespread publicity the case had generated.
A file pic of Ms Pamela Hickey outside Limerick Circuit Court recently with solicitor John Devane
