Irish garda allegedly took bribes to stamp immigration forms

An Irish garda accused of fraudulently stamping hundreds of immigration applications in exchange for cash has been arrested.Getty Images

The retired Irish garda was arrested on December 11

A retired Irish Garda (police officer) was arrested in Ireland this week after he was accused of accepting bribes in exchange for stamping immigration forms for hundreds of people.

The garda, who is said to be in his mid-60s and has since retired, is accused of stamping hundreds of immigration forms for Pakistani and Indian nationals in exchange for bribes, sometimes thousands of Euro per application.

The Irish Times, who says the Irish Daily Mail was the first to report on the investigation earlier this year, reports that the cop is accused of taking money from a “fixer” who would bring groups of applicants to his garda office in the Western Region of Ireland.

The accused garda allegedly stamped documents that certified the applicants had submitted the relevant documents required to gain permission to reside and work in Ireland. A lot of the applicants entered Ireland on student visas and then sought to extend their stays.

The alleged scam came to light when officials took notice of the “unusually” high number of forms that were being stamped by the same police officer in a county which does not have a particularly high population of non-nationals.

A garda spokesperson said: “Gardaí from the Roscommon/Longford Division investigating a number of immigration irregularities at a Garda station in the then Western Region which commenced in mid-2017 have this morning, Wednesday 11th December 2019 arrested a male in his 60s in connection with this investigation.

“Gardaí involved in this investigation were assisted by a team from the Garda National Immigration Bureau and officials from the Department of Justice. Investigations are ongoing.”

It is understood that some 1,000 applications are now being reviewed. Some of the applicants, however, may have already left Ireland.

Irish cop accused of fraudulently stamping immigration forms for cash