How possession of a stolen tractor proved a Deere lesson for one man
A stolen tractor has cost a Co Meath man over €45,000 - a circuit court has heard.
The valuable machine found when gardai searched premises near Kells two and a half years ago had been stolen in Scotland six months earlier Trim Circuit Court heard.
Forty nine year old Paul Casserly, Moyaugher, Cortown, Kells, pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen John Deere tractor on June 28, 2014 at Milltown Cortown Kells or being reckless as to whether it was stolen.
Det. Gda. Eugene O'Sullivan from the Stolen Vehicle Unit at the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation told prosecuting counsel Carl Hanahoe BL that gardai acting on a tip off searched the defendant's premises at Cortown and found a John Deere 6930 four wheel drive tractor.
The 155 horse power machine was registered in the name of a man with an address in Balbriggan but when gardai checked no one of that name lived there and the registration was bogus.
They also discovered that the chassis number on the tractor was false.
A diagnostic examination revealed a false number had been stamped over the original number.
The false number matched an identical model which had been sold by a UK dealership to a farmer in Norway and the original chassis number matched that of a tractor reported stolen on November 30, 2013 from an agricultural contractor in Scotland - Alastair John Lauder based in Kelso on the Scottish Borders.