Patrick Matthews (34) took more than €26,000 from ‘customers’ using false ‘DoneDeal’ advertisements.
The conman has admitted in court of scamming 24 people using holiday home advertisements and another person for One Direction tickets.
Matthews pleaded guilty to 115 charges which totalled to €26,282 for crimes which spanned from 10th March 2015 to 20th February 2016. Matthews used his ill gotten gains to feed his gambling addiction.
As well as his false adverts, Matthews also stole 18 cheques from a deaf man that he shared accommodation with, 13 of which he cashed to the tune of €7,252. The victim was fully re-imbursed by his bank.
Helen McCormack made Gardaí aware of the crimes after a One Direction ticket she paid €75 for was never given to her. Ms McCormack responded to one of the DoneDeal adverts and lodged €75 on June 3 2015 to Matthews’s bank account.
According to the Mirror, Insp Kennedy said: “Mr Matthews told stories such as a house flooding or a house being repossessed. One person expressed disappointment that their holiday was ruined when hearing that they had no holiday home to go to.”
His solicitor, Daragh Hassett, said: “The difficulty with Mr Matthews is his serious gambling addiction and in particular one armed bandits where he frittered away an incredible amount of money over the years. The money he was trying to get was to pay back debts from that.”
Judge Durcan adjourned the case for three weeks to allow victims make victim impact statements. Matthews could be facing up to two years in prison.