A former garda sergeant has said his life was ruined because he signed false passport application forms at the request of a retired colleague.
Finbarr Hickey pleaded guilty in the Special Criminal Court to signing fraudulent passport application forms, and was jailed for 12 months.
"I lost my job, the house, the pension, everything over it. It did effectively ruin my life," Mr Hickey said.
When arrested in Dundalk in 1998, he told detectives he had been asked to sign the forms by a colleague, retired sergeant Leo Colton. Mr Colton denied this, and was never charged with an offence, although a file was sent to the DPP.
One of the passports was later recovered from IRA member Jimmy Fox, whose photograph had been circulated to garda stations at the time because he was wanted for questioning.
"I should have known better but I was just a gobshite and I signed it," Mr Hickey said.
Mr Hickey signed the application forms in 1996, while serving as a sergeant in Hackballscross, Co Monaghan.
The tribunal is looking at allegations of garda collusion in the March 1989 IRA ambush which led to the deaths of RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan.
Mr Hickey said he had little memory of the day the two RUC officers were killed, except that the chief superintendent in Dundalk had gone missing the same day and could not be located for a while when news of the ambush reached the station.
He said he did not know anything about RUC intelligence reports read into the record at the tribunal yesterday stating he was
passing information to the IRA.
Questioned by the tribunal chairman, Mr Hickey said he never signed any other forms at the request of other garda colleagues during his time in the force.
