Lawyers for Ivor Callely have pleaded for their client to be spared jail time after he admitted using false invoices to claim mobile phone expenses.
The former Fianna Fáil junior minister claimed thousands of euro after he was nominated to the Seanad in 2007.
From the corridors of power to the dock of a courtroom, the last few years were described as a spectacular fall from grace for Ivor Callely.
Not long after being nominated to the Seanad in 2007, he began abusing a scheme which allowed TDs and Senators claim mobile phone expenses.
By using doctored invoices, he claimed over €4200 between 2007 and 2009.
The court heard some of the invoices dated after the Euro was introduced quoted prices in the old Irish punt and invalid contact numbers were used for companies that had gone bust.
When a journalist requested details about his expenses in 2010, he withdrew the claims and paid most of it back.
Two years later, Gardai confronted him about the fake invoices and he initially suggested an old friend and former business partner might be responsible.
That man had died in tragic circumstances in Feb 2009.
The former junior minister pleaded guilty to the offences today and he's due to be sentenced next Monday.
