{"id":366536,"date":"2026-03-04T01:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/366536\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T01:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:27:08","slug":"garda-suspended-for-lending-man-bicycle-during-pandemic-to-receive-more-than-e250000-in-damages-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/366536\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda suspended for lending man bicycle during pandemic to receive more than \u20ac250,000 in damages \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A detective who was suspended from An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> and placed under criminal investigation for lending a man an unclaimed bicycle during the Covid-19 pandemic is to receive some \u20ac260,000 in damages.<\/p>\n

Last month, the detective reached a confidential settlement in his civil damages case against the force and the Government in advance of a full High Court<\/a> trial.<\/p>\n

The Garda Representative Assocation<\/a> (GRA) said the matter \u201cshould never have reached this point\u201d and that it was a case of a garda being \u201cpursued like a criminal\u201d for helping a vulnerable member of his community during the Covid-19<\/a> pandemic.<\/p>\n

The detective, who is based in the midlands, was suspended for more than three years after he gave a bicycle from a garda station to an older man in his community who required it following a knee injury.<\/p>\n

However, it was alleged by investigators that the garda did not get permission in advance or fill out the necessary paperwork to take the bike, which was registered as an item in the Garda\u2019s official exhibits system for evidence and property.<\/p>\n

The detective said he had informed his superior officer about lending the bike at the time.<\/p>\n

He was suspended and the matter was investigated by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation<\/a> when it came to light. The detective\u2019s home was also searched in June 2020 and the bicycle was retrieved from the man he loaned it to.<\/p>\n

A criminal investigation into what happened found the garda member had no criminal case to answer. A disciplinary board cleared the detective in 2024 of all of charges he faced.<\/p>\n

He spent three years on suspension and was on restricted duty for a further period before being entirely cleared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I am unaware of the exact details or terms of any confidential settlement, I can categorically state that this is a case that should never reached this point,\u201d said GRA general secretary Ronan Slevin. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a clear case of a rural garda doing his duty and helping out an isolated and vulnerable member of his community during Covid and he was pursued like a criminal. This member was left suspended for years without clear and fair process, which to me is shameful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just relieved that common sense has finally prevailed and we hope a lesson has been learned here in the value and importance of compassionate community policing and the benefits of recognising such for the good of our members and the public we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A detective who was suspended from An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and placed under criminal investigation for lending a man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[956,9,10,64,18,13,14,61425,6,10476,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-366536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-covid-19","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-garda-representative-association","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116168310408924517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}