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SUNDAY MIRROR: INVESTIGATES Stolen phone?
MEET the small-time businessman who helps mobile phone thieves make a fortune from their crimes.
And conveniently for the muggers who rob people of their handsets on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Alan Donohoe has opened a branch office there.
With no questions asked, Donohoe buys and sells second hand mobiles. And he doesn't care if they are stolen or not.
But now an Irish Sunday Mirror investigation should make sure Donohoe's lucrative little business is cut off.
Sitting behind the counter in his office, Alan wearing a white shellsuit, told us: "We do indeed buy mobile phones. We don't ask any questions - a phone is a phone. It's nicked? No bother at all, no bother."
He carries out his work in a grubby little office in the rundown Carlton Cinema site on O'Connell Street - the street where at least 50 mobile phone thefts are reported every week.
Computer whizkid Donohoe also "fixes" handsets that need unlocking so they can be used with a new sim card and sold on to new, unsuspecting customers.
Each handset in the country is "locked" to a particular network, so when stolen a thief knows the value of the phone goes up if it is "unlocked" so it can be used with any network.
Donohoe also has legitimate clients who need their mobile phones unlocked or bought for perfectly legal reasons.
But he knows how to keep his regular "clients" coming back to him - good business sense says give them a discount, so he does.
For the regulars and new people who have more than one mobile that needs unlocking, he knocks a few euro off the normal EUR20-a-phone fee. He said: "I have the same people come in all time.
"If you told me you were getting so many I always give discounts, once it's over three phones I give it, so expect a discount anyway if it's three or more.
"It's no problem to me, if someone comes in, their phone's locked, wants it unlocked... that's it. Money is money and that's it, you know? Drop in any time."
Donohue runs a while-u-wait service from his office and makes sure people know about his business by pinning posters up around Dublin city centre, including the notice boards in Trinity College.
His advertisements on the internet make his shady dealings look like a legitimate business.
Calling himself GSM Solutions Ltd, Alan offers a full range of services. His site claims: "GSM Solutions was set up primarily to provide comprehensive GSM services.
"We are based in Dublin and for your convenience we have located our new office on O'Connell Street.
Enterprising Donohoe also lists an HQ address as though it is on an industrial estate on the Navan Road - but it actually turns out to be his home near Dublin's North Circular Road.
He buys mobile phones for as little as EUR20 but he will take a top-of-the-range Nokia off you for EUR80.
Once serviced and unlocked he sells them on for a profit of at least EUR100 each. He makes no checks to find out where the seller's phone came from.
A phone security expert in Dublin said: "This is a thieves' charter.By unlocking a phone it gives it more value because it can work on any network.
"When you buy a mobile phone it is locked into the network of the company you bought it from.
"That way the phone can only be used with their network keeping the business with them.
"By unlocking the phone it can be used on any network in the world."
Donohoe's business is not quite a one-man operation. A blonde colleague works closely with him but didn't deal directly with customers.
When an investigator handed over a foreign-registered phone to be unlocked, Donohoe passed it over to the girl to work on while he chatted about his other scams. One of them was a EUR15 book of secret phone codes.
He said: "Basically there's a lot of stuff in there to do with your mobile phone. Such as, do you have a mobile phone, I assume you have a mobile phone, say you have EUR10 credit on it there is a code than can transfer credit from another mobile phone.
"Not just a pay as you go, you can do it on anything.
"The way it works is you put in a code into another mobile phone and for every minute that goes by EUR1.90 goes into credit on your phone."
Unfortunately for our undercover reporter, Alan had sold out of the book but he promised: "I'll have more of them in in a couple of days' time."
Within minutes the phone was unlocked and could now be used with a sim card from any of the Irish networks.
The multi-million euro stolen mobile industry has left Ireland suffering a epidemic of phone theft.
At least 2, 000 cases around the country are reported to gardai every week. The victims include Assistant Garda Commissioner Kevin Carty.
Last night Labour's spokesman on justice Joe Costello TD, whose North Dublin constituency includes O'Connell Street, called for gardai to look into Donohue's business.
He said: "The gardai should take an interest in a business like this and let the owner know that activity like that could in fact help criminality.
"I would like to see the authorities take an interest to make sure it's operating fully above board.
"They should see that any business that's operating like that there are proper regulations in place."
Our investigator's dossier is open for gardai to look at.
There is no limited company registered with the company's registry in Dublin known as GSM Solutions Limited.
And it is believed Donohoe uses the name only as a trade name.
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