Glass in Food Scam Artist in Galway City...

metroburgers

Any info on this?

Griffin's of Shop Street
"This scam artist was in Griffins last week. He created a scene claiming to have bitten into a large piece of glass which he claimed was stuck in his mouth. He "left to see a doctor " and came back with a large shard of glass and a €50 receipt from a "doctor" which he claimed the doctor had to pull from his mouth.
We need your help to catch this scam artist who has also done the same in many restaurants and cafés in Galway . He speaks with an Irish accent "

Allegedly this has also occurred in the Harbour Hotel, Cafe Zealous, Cookes, Il Vicola, An Tobar Nua.

Further info on FB page of restaurant above.

Shady Tady

That Muppet of a Mayor Conneely was on GBFM telling everyone about him and wising up potential con artists to this scam, local businesses should be contacted by the chamber of commerce or Gardaí and made aware of it without broadcasting it. Guess its getting close to the local elections!

snubbleste

Shady Tady wrote: »

That Muppet of a Mayor Conneely was on GBFM telling everyone about him and wising up potential con artists to this scam, local businesses should be contacted by the chamber of commerce or Gardaí and made aware of it without broadcasting it. Guess its getting close to the local elections!

Only three months to go!
Wonder was it Galway Crystal?

metroburgers

Wondering is it fair for him to be named and shamed like this?

The amount of businesses he has allegedly "visited" is huge... e.g. too many.

What if it turned out he had serious mental issues and is now permanently stigmatised in Galway?

I think the affected businesses have dealt with this inappropriately.

swiftman

metroburgers wrote: »

Wondering is it fair for him to be named and shamed like this?

The amount of businesses he has allegedly "visited" is huge... e.g. too many.

What if it turned out he had serious mental issues and is now permanently stigmatised in Galway?

I think the affected businesses have dealt with this inappropriately.

Disagree, if anything we need to put the public aware of people like this who do the same crime over and over.
We have to little of this, different kettle of fish but same should be done with paedophile and people who rape

zarquon

metroburgers wrote: »

What if it turned out he had serious mental issues and is now permanently stigmatised in Galway?

I think the affected businesses have dealt with this inappropriately.

Serious mental issues? He is conducting a carefully contrived, planned and executed scam across lots of businesses in Galway with great success. He knows full well what he is doing and does not need an apologist sticking up for him as he continues to victimise legitimit businesses.

Name and shame scumbags like this. This is the type of scum who would throw himself in front of your car and claim against you.

WallyGUFC

Name and shame. But what were the businesses at paying out to him? Surely they should have done a bit of research/further investigation into each incident before paying the scam artist!

death1234567

metroburgers wrote: »

Wondering is it fair for him to be named and shamed like this?

The amount of businesses he has allegedly "visited" is huge... e.g. too many.

What if it turned out he had serious mental issues and is now permanently stigmatised in Galway?

I think the affected businesses have dealt with this inappropriately.

So its the criminal that's the victim, of course it was so simple all along. Let's empty the prison's and change the justice system so that anyone convicted of a crime gets a hug instead of a custodial sentence.

metroburgers

So I guess it's fair game to publicly <snip>?





Mod - no, it's not ok

yaledo

metroburgers wrote: »

He "left to see a doctor " and came back with a large shard of glass and a €50 receipt from a "doctor" which he claimed the doctor had to pull from his mouth.

Wait - why was the receipt in the doctor's mouth?

antoobrien

metroburgers wrote: »

So I guess it's fair game to publicly <nope>

If it's on the public record yes, otherwise no.

I'm curious as to why you are trying to make this out to be anything other than either a genuine injury or a criminal fact.

Given the fact that several businesses are claiming to be affected, it appears that it's neither genuine nor a cry for help.

biko

To be honest, so far we only have a facebook page and some hearsay to go on. Maybe something will be reported in the papers.

metroburgers

antoobrien wrote: »

If it's on the public record yes, otherwise no.

I'm curious as to why you are trying to make this out to be anything other than either a genuine injury or a criminal fact.

Given the fact that several businesses are claiming to be affected, it appears that it's neither genuine nor a cry for help.

It's a deplorable scam preying on struggling Galway businesses. My issue is that while public awareness is needed to stop this scam, the alleged perpetrator has now been named and pictured, with info on where he lives/resides including possibly defamatory remarks.

antoobrien

metroburgers wrote: »

It's a deplorable scam preying on struggling Galway businesses. My issue is that while public awareness is needed to stop this scam, the alleged perpetrator has now been named and pictured, with info on where he lives/resides including possibly defamatory remarks.

The only "possibly defamatory" remarks I've seen have been made by you in repeating the others out of context.

Ex Bouncer

Who in fairness was scamming who. A guy claims he has eaten a scone with glass in it that a cafe sold to him. If this was true the business should be concerned that the guy could suffer internal bleeding and Die, they should have arranged to get him to A&E, then check that no other customer is affected, even close for a duration until the stock is checked, but NO this did not happen, the business let the guy arrange to go and see his own doctor, and possibly die en route, the business's did not seem concerned about the person here, but seemed more concerned about getting rid of him. A second opportunity arises when he returns with a receipt for a doctor, again the business pay him to GO, and then they realise they were scammed, and its all over facebook. NOT ONE WORD was on facebook when the business was accused of having glass found in a scone, no HSE or HSA contacted, No closedown, no alert, nothing !!
If I was sitting in one of those Cafes with one of my kids, during this scam where this guy caused a commotion complaining that there was glass in his scone, and I only found out about it on facebook a week later, and I or my child could have been seriously injured, I would be contacting my legal people now.
Lastly the facebook campaign got out of hand, naming the guy, the court will do that in time, giving out his address, again the court, saying he had a drink problem,and his state of mind, a court psychology report, and eventually a conviction, NOT A FACEBOOK, JUDGE, JURY & EXECUTIONER. A photo being verified and confirmed by the guards is as far as the facebook campaign should have went, and Private Messages to identify him after that could have been used. IT WENT TOO FAR, bordering Vigilante and hate campaign, and prejudicing any investigation and court case outcome, and to see one business commenting that the thread had hit 12000 views with the word "WOW!!!" shows the real motives of that business, you cant buy that type of advertisement for €50.

zarquon

Gotta love Ireland where the whingers complain that the criminals are victims as long as he is not wealthy or has affected said whinger personally! I wonder would some of the posters above be jumping on the criminality support bandwagon if charges were brought against those responisble for the banking collapse followed by a social media naming campaign.

Seriously people who support this type of scam are either connected to the identified individual in some way or else suffer from moral ambiguity themselves. I guess some people think it's okay to scam legitimate business in order to "stick it to the man"

I say once again, people who engage in such activity will have no issue taking it to a more personal level with car insurance claims etc.

Formula for serial protestors/whingers:

Corporate Scam = Hang them all or lock them up and throw away the key!

Working Class scam = Sticking it to the man, innocent until proven guilty, justice for the accused, etc.

/RANT OVER.

WallyGUFC

They were scammed. They found the guy. Couldn't care less whether he was named or not. It's good that his picture was circulated; prevent other businesses getting scammed. He is scum for consistently doing this, and scum deserve to be named and shamed so the public can avoid ever coming across them.

zarquon

If this guy was a serial offending pedophile would people still support his rights to anonymity and justice even if there was dozens of victim testimony to the contrary. I know the 2 crimes don't equate at all but the question is idealogically the same, how much rights and protection should be afforded to criminals in this country.

Those responsible for the banking collapse still have not been brought to justice because of the perverted protection giving to them. People cry foul because of this but some of those same people cry out to support scum like the accused in this doctor note scam.

JONJO THE MISER

It seems to be that Griffins does not care what happens to its customers on its premises.
Okay this time it was a con artist but what if this incident did happen sometime, the way they said made a big scene, well you can be sure i would make a big scene if that had happened me.
Also there was a big discussion on liveline last week that you are not allowed use cctv images of people either on a poster or on social media because of data protection laws, so they are breaking the law by posting his picture online, he could sue them for this.

Mrs OBumble

If someone had eaten something with glass in it, and the glass was lodged in their mouth, then there would be blood all over the show. Of course an ambulance would be called.

JONJO THE MISER

What the guy done was wrong no doubt about that, but it speaks volumes of the management that they launched a facebook campaign with people giving out his address and talking about his supposed problems, that is slander and they can be sued for that as well as breaking the data protection laws.

Mrs OBumble

Ya, I'm no fan of Griffin's approach to social media marketing (eg braying about how his customers want to drive into the city and park for free, rather than support cafes in their local areas).

But I don't think it's fair to assume a lack of concern for genuine customers from this incident.

galwayrush

Scam artist bastard busted. Excellent, :cool:

_Whimsical_

I hope this ends well. It's only a week or two since we have had someone take their life seemingly over being found driving without insurance. I don't think this guy should get away with what he is doing but I'm not sure Facebook is the place to deal with him. I'd rather see them let the guards do it than see his name,his face,his haunts,his problems revealed on a bakers facebook.

St.Chivalry

Yeah, its pretty lame for it to be dealt on FB and all this, should be kept more private, but sure that's Griffens for you.


BUT boy oh boy, Griffens do the BEST bread.

Keep in mind folks, cuisinedefrance is not French and cuisinedefrance's product is COMPLETE RUBBISH. It is NOTHING like the real thing, nothing.

Griffens on the other hand, make 90%- potency compared to what you would get in France, and we don't have many shops in Ireland, yet alone Galway that have proper barker products.

So yeah !!!

D Trent

metroburgers wrote: »

Wondering is it fair for him to be named and shamed like this?

The amount of businesses he has allegedly "visited" is huge... e.g. too many.

What if it turned out he had serious mental issues and is now permanently stigmatised in Galway?

I think the affected businesses have dealt with this inappropriately.

I think you are right. There's a Facebook saying that the same man was the individual who threatened to pour petrol on himself and light up on top of an apartment block in Salthill this eve resulting in a huge operation by gardai, negotiators and Galway fire and rescue he was subsequently arrested

spurscormac

D Trent wrote: »

I think you are right. There's a Facebook saying that the same man was the individual who threatened to pour petrol on himself and light up on top of an apartment block in Salthill this eve resulting in a huge operation by gardai, negotiators and Galway fire and rescue he was subsequently arrested

Irish Independent reporting the same thing.

_Whimsical_

God, that's eerie. I thought of that man as soon as I saw the thing in Salthill.
A bit of a lesson in it really, the internet is not the place for sorting these matters.

JONJO THE MISER

Trial by social media, Griffens bakery has a lot to answer for seeing what has happened this evening.
I think the data protection office should get involved with this seeing as it was against the law to post cctv video and pic on facebook.

_Whimsical_

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

Trial by social media, Griffens bakery has a lot to answer for seeing what has happened this evening.
I think the data protection office should get involved with this seeing as it was against the law to post cctv video and pic on facebook.

Ya know, they couldn't have predicted this. I'm sure they'll be devastated to see how this played out. If we've learned anything let it be that shaming people online ,including whoever made the mistake in Griffins, isn't the way to go.

metroburgers

Relieved this has ended without injury to anyone involved in the standoff, also can't help notice a certain business has now deleted all their recent fb posts...