Two Monaghan residents have been jailed for demanding €100,000 from a man after telling him that his son "owed a lot of money to dangerous people". Alan Fitzsimons (47) of James McCormack Gardens, Sutton, Dublin 13 and also with an address at Lisduff, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan and Dominic Dynes (53) of Bree, also Castleblayney both pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to demanding money with menace in November 2021.
Fitzsimons has no previous convictions, while Dynes' convictions include convictions for having firearms in suspicious circumstances as well as assaulting a police officer in 1996. Sergeant Donal O'Connell told Eoin Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that it was the understanding of investigating gardaí that the victim's son had previously been recruited to collect cash raised from a money laundering operation on behalf of a criminal organisation. It is believed that he got into trouble with these people after he kept some of the cash he had collected rather than handing it over.
Today Judge Martin Nolan jailed Fitzsimons for four years and 10 months and jailed Dynes for six and half years. He said the threat was very real to the victim and he was apprehensive that if he didn't comply with the demands for money he or his family would suffer. He said it is understood that the victim's son had "dissipated funds he had been trusted with" because of a debt he had run up from a gambling addiction.
Judge Nolan said it was "a frightening situation" for the victim and he handed over a large amount of money but he acknowledged that neither Dynes nor Fitzsimons behaved in a violent way. He said regardless the victim "understood the message". "They wanted him to understand that if the money was not paid over there would be dire consequences," Judge Nolan continued. "It is common now for particular entities to impose liabilities incurred by individuals on their families," Judge Nolan said before he described it as " a sinister crime". "Both were mature men and must have known they were participating in sinister crimes," Judge Nolan said before he set a headline sentence of ten years. He then jailed Dynes for six and half years and Fitzsimons for four years and ten months.
