Man given time to compensate 14 victims

A Polish national, whose €28,100 Dublin city centre "apartment scam" left some foreign nationals living on the streets, has been given time to allow him compensate his 14 victims before he is sentenced.

Leszek Mikulski (27), who was given bail in August on condition that he reside at Jamestown Park, Ratoath, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to 14 charges of theft on dates between February and March 2007 at two Dublin city centre apartments on Usher's Quay and Wellington Quay.

Judge Patricia Ryan said it was clear the loss of money to those affected by Mikulski's crime must have an ongoing effect on them and a monetary value could not be placed on that and the court wasn't made aware of how they were affected.

Det Garda Desmond Rogers told Judge Petria McDonnell when Mikulski applied for bail at a vacation hearing in August, that some of his victims had been left living on the streets.

He said Mikulski used two different bogus names and contact details on lease agreements for the two apartments. He took a month's rent in advance and a month's rent in deposit from each person before handing over keys that weren't for those apartments.

He was never in a position to lease either apartment which he himself had been renting after signing lease agreements with one of his false names.

Det Garda Rogers told Shane Costelloe BL, prosecuting, that Mikulski was arrested for theft after he admitted he was in the process of falsely letting an apartment in Dublin.

© 2007 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times