Woman stole 760k from employer and spent it on handbags

BrianD3

Surprised there wasn't a thread on this

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40191180.html

Worked for the Donegal Education Centre from 2009 to 2015 and stole 760k in that time. Spent it on "clothing, designer handbags, perfumes, jewellery with many high-end labels including Prada and Gucci". Well done!

I'm not sure what the Donegal Education Centre is, a VEC or similar? Public sector? Questions would need to be asked about how such a sum went missing over the course of only 6 years.

Leg End Reject

You'd wonder what funding an education centre receives if it takes time to miss just over 3 quarters of a million.

All the designer stuff just left in bags too, bizarre.

silverharp

If you think its bad for her what does it say about her manager? or was it do what you like there?

RandRuns

Many NGO's are pretty much a bottomless pit of magical taxpayer money. If she'd only stolen half a million or so, nobody might have noticed.

silverharp

silverharp wrote: »

If you think its bad for her what does it say about her manager? or was it do what you like there?

Manager and their entire finance dept. dropped the ball
Shambles

BronsonTB

Lack of accountability in the public service....

J. Marston

He added that it was a sad and unusual case and that if there is any money recouped from the recovery of all the designer brands then perhaps that could be repaid also.

Oh, perhaps?

suicide_circus

€760k over 6 years is €10.5k per month going missing from a small regional educational body.

That does not smell right.

harrymcgowan

I don't get this. How do people think they can get away with it? If I was a thief, I'd be reasonable and steal a small amount like €10,000 every year. Might not get noticed.

batman75

How in god's name did she manage to thieve this amount without it being twigged much earlier. Doesn't say much for those overseeing the administration of funds. Of course it goes without saying what she did was disgraceful and the state will never see this money back.

POBox19

And this year's award for outstanding governance goes to...

Honestly, the management prior to 2015 must have been asleep at the wheel and should be investigated. How do you not miss €10,000 each month.

seenitall

My speculation would be that there are more people (especially of those responsible for keeping track of the money/overseers) involved in this, and she’s the one to take the rap for the lot. That would be one explanation, anyway.

John Doe1

seenitall wrote: »

My speculation would be that there are more people (especially of those responsible for keeping track of the money/overseers) involved in this, and she’s the one to take the rap for the lot. That would be one explanation, anyway.

Agreed, something doesnt stack up here

bilbot79

Seems to be a lot of this sort of thing at the minute

headtheball14

Yes how much is rolling around etbs Kildare also had a massive issue https://www.rte.ie/news/investigations-unit/2018/0615/970787-investigation-into-kildare-wicklow-education-and-training-board/

Ticking and Bashing

Probably a small team, lack of segregation of duties, management not overseeing staff. Could've been collusion as well though. It can happen easy enough.There must've been obvious red flags though (her coming to work in designer clothes /expensive bags etc.) when she probably wasn't earning much. It's a difficult trap to get out . Management should be blamed for this as well for the significant governance failures that happened.

Purple Mountain

Ticking and Bashing wrote: »

Probably a small team, lack of segregation of duties, management not overseeing staff. Could've been collusion as well though. It can happen easy enough.There must've been obvious red flags though (her coming to work in designer clothes /expensive bags etc.) when she probably wasn't earning much. It's a difficult trap to get out . Management should be blamed for this as well for the significant governance failures that happened.

I read today that most of the bags and gear are still wrapped up in her house!

Eric Cartman

Purple Mountain wrote: »

I read today that most of the bags and gear are still wrapped up in her house!

Probably more in it for the shopping itself or instagram likes than being seen out with the gear

Gruffalux

Mostly I don't understand a love for handbags.
A nice bespoke leather satchel perhaps. Or a useful waterproof backpack. Even a medieval style side purse on a belt. But handbags?! Mostly they look like awful yokes

bucketybuck

Gruffalux wrote: »

Mostly I don't understand a love for handbags.
A nice bespoke leather satchel perhaps. Or a useful waterproof backpack. Even a medieval style side purse on a belt. But handbags?! Mostly they look like awful yokes

She needed more time to steal enough for gladrags.

paw patrol

harrymcgowan wrote: »

I don't get this. How do people think they can get away with it? If I was a thief, I'd be reasonable and steal a small amount like €10,000 every year. Might not get noticed.

went on for 6 years.
she clearly did get away with it for quite some time.
I guess after the first few times she felt she wouldn't be

poor pet has received hate mail....surprised suspended sentences weren't dished out

Mimon

Considering the stuff she spent it on and not even opening some of the packages would suggest some sort of mental issue to me.

Mind boggles that it took a new director coming in to spot a 750,000 hole in the finances.

Yourmama

harrymcgowan wrote:

I don't get this. How do people think they can get away with it? If I was a thief, I'd be reasonable and steal a small amount like €10,000 every year. Might not get noticed.

Nah, she'll get a slap on the wrist over either amount. What's the point in stealing pennies? Go big or go home

whisky_galore

paw patrol wrote: »

went on for 6 years.
she clearly did get away with it for quite some time.
I guess after the first few times she felt she wouldn't be

poor pet has received hate mail....surprised suspended sentences weren't dished out

Awww poor thief.

Gruffalux

bucketybuck wrote: »

She needed more time to steal enough for gladrags.

Oh, handbags are time machines! This I did not know and it significantly raises their value in my estimation.

Gruffalux

whisky_galore wrote: »

Awww poor thief.

That's what I always say.

Montage of Feck

If your going to steal that amount at least spend it on something useful, rather than overpriced designer tat.

POBox19

Mimon wrote: »

Considering the stuff she spent it on and not even opening some of the packages would suggest some sort of mental issue to me.

Mind boggles that it took a new director coming in to spot a 750,000 hole in the finances.

What about the fat cat expensive AUDITORS. Their job is to comb the accounts each year and certify that the books are a true and accurate account of the state of the company finances????

Purple Mountain

Purple Mountain wrote: »

I read today that most of the bags and gear are still wrapped up in her house!

That sounds fairly sad really. Theres more going on here.

Akesh

Plenty more of this goes uncovered every year. NGOs and Charities are the worst offenders.

BrianD3

One other thing I thought of was - 2009 to 2015 encompassed the Troika/austerity era, the spotlight should have been on finances and spending in all public bodies. Yet this happened.

From Donegal Education Centre's Mission Statement, to clarify where its funding comes from.

Donegal Education Support Centre is one of a national network of 21 Education Support
Centres. The Centre is directly funded by the Department of Education & Skills (DES)
through the Teacher Education Section (TES) under the National Development Plan and
works with the DES to ensure the professional learning needs of our teachers and school
leaders are supported.

vicwatson

POBox19 wrote: »

What about the fat cat expensive AUDITORS. Their job is to comb the accounts each year and certify that the books are a true and accurate account of the state of the company finances????

And who signed off on the accounts?

vicwatson

BrianD3 wrote: »

One other thing I thought of was - 2009 to 2015 encompassed the Troika/austerity era, the spotlight should have been on finances and spending in all public bodies. Yet this happened.

From Donegal Education Centre's Mission Statement, to clarify where its funding comes from.

No accountability no risk all be grand shure

AndyBoBandy

She was sentenced to 3 years with the final 12 months suspended, however the judge said he had to consider suspending the entire 3 years...

He said the offence was well into the mid-range of such offences and merited a sentence of three years in prison.

However, because of the mitigating factors, he would suspend the last 12 months.

Judge Aylmer said he had to consider suspending the entire sentence but added that because of the seriousness of the offences, it was beyond the threshold of suspending the balance of the two-year sentence.

Someone steals €760k, and the judge still has to consider a suspended sentence.....

That's the maddest thing in the article!!

silverharp

what was she actually doing, literally just transferring money to herself or an invoice scam? the second one is plausible I guess but still a lot of basic controls missing

RandRuns

The fact that she could simply transfer this amount of money, over the course of years, into her account, without anyone missing it, makes one wonder how she is the only one up in court.
However, since education boards and the like tend to be stuffed with political appointees, the usual routine is that one nobody takes the fall, while the better-connected superiors (pillars of the community no doubt) shrug their shoulders and move onto milking the next scam.

BrianD3

silverharp wrote: »

what was she actually doing, literally just transferring money to herself or an invoice scam? the second one is plausible I guess but still a lot of basic controls missing

Not clear exactly what she was doing but it doesn't sound like she was some sort of clever white collar criminal/scam artist. However, according to this earlier article, when the Gardai searched her house they found "ten black refuse bags filled with documentation from her workplace"

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2019/1217/1101727-theft-trial/

LuasSimon

The rest of the staff where she worked were too busy on facebook and moaning about not been paid enough

thunderdog

Montage of Feck wrote: »

If your going to steal that amount at least spend it on something useful, rather than overpriced designer tat.

Some high end handbags increase in value over time. The fact that a lot of the handbags were in their original boxes/bags might suggest that she was planning on sitting on them for a while, selling them on for a higher value at a later stage

Crime pays.

One year in prison for all that money. In this sort of situation it's not worth paying it back either as the sentence is so paltry. Just have to make sure its hidden well enough ie on "bags".

This is what happens when you can only jail 150 odd women. They can get away with a lot.

Men arent much better. Saw a few cases over the last year or two where men were being paid well in advance of 50k per year in jail.
Sure why wouldn't you fleece some pensioner or clean some business out when you're going to be paid a premium to do the sentence.

Yet another story of the joke republic... always hard on crime in Ireland.

quokula

According to their website "The Centre is now one of the busiest in the national network catering for approximately 230 school communities and 3000 teachers", which means but the amount stolen is about 3 euro per teacher per month, it's not that crazy that it might have taken a while to be picked up.

Sardonicat

What was the intended purpose of the vast quantities of money stolen? Did no one notice when what it was supposed to pay for never happened? Did the organisation not have a remit to carry out certain tasks and given a budget for doing so and then have to provide evidence that they did it and produce evidence?

RandRuns

thunderdog wrote: »

Some high end handbags increase in value over time. The fact that a lot of the handbags were in their original boxes/bags might suggest that she was planning on sitting on them for a while, selling them on for a higher value at a later stage

You could be right, but reading about how simplistic her crime was, and the fact she appears to have made little or no effort to cover her tracks, I'm guessing that she didn't have any plan at all, and just bought stuff she liked. I know of a not dissimilar case a few years ago, where a company I did work with had a (male) employee who stole equipment that was useless to him over the course of years. When the Gardaí went to search his house, he had rooms full of the stuff he stole, piled up to the ceilings, with just laneways to get through it. He had never made any attempt to use or sell any of it, just hoarded it. He had a wife and young kids, and his wife was apparently relieved when he was caught, as she had been trying to persuade him to get help for years. I'm guessing it is some form of mental illness.
In the case of this woman and her handbags, I wonder if someone smarter might have been syphoning money off for themselves, and used her as the fall guy.

Sardonicat

quokula wrote: »

According to their website "The Centre is now one of the busiest in the national network catering for approximately 230 school communities and 3000 teachers", which means but the amount stolen is about 3 euro per teacher per month, it's not that crazy that it might have taken a while to be picked up.

I'd still like to know what they do. What tangible form does this 'support' take?

RandRuns

Sardonicat wrote: »

What was the intended purpose of the vast quantities of money stolen? Did no one notice when what it was supposed to pay for never happened? Did the organisation not have a remit to carry out certain tasks and given a budget for doing so and then have to provide evidence that they did it and produce evidence?

It is a government-funded quango. Stuff like carrying out tasks and budgets are secondary to the real reason these things exist - to provide well-paid employment for well-connected people who haven't the intellect or drive to hold down a real job.

Sardonicat

RandRuns wrote: »

It is a government-funded quango. Stuff like carrying out tasks and budgets are secondary to the real reason these things exist - to provide well-paid employment for well-connected people who haven't the intellect or drive to hold down a real job.

'Here's your annual funding, now go and do some teacher support stuff. No, I dont know what that means, either. Sure, whatever you think yourself. '

RandRuns

Sardonicat wrote: »

'Here's your annual funding, now go and do some teacher support stuff. No, I dont know what that means, either. Sure, whatever you think yourself. '

I'd imagine that's pretty much it!

Kivaro

POBox19 wrote: »

What about the fat cat expensive AUDITORS. Their job is to comb the accounts each year and certify that the books are a true and accurate account of the state of the company finances????

The Auditors should be fired.
But that will never happen, as that cozy cartel is another can of worms.
With the tax payer picking up the bill, as usual.

ThunbergsAreGo

What an absolute farce that is, how does noone know it is gone. The waste of money by NGOS must be astronomical. I read somewhere 33k per homeless person is spent by homeless charity.

2 years seems incredibly lenient

bossdrum

Kivaro wrote: »

The Auditors should be fired.
But that will never happen, as that cozy cartel is another can of worms.
With the tax payer picking up the bill, as usual.

The auditors are appointed on a yearly basis so they can't be fired. Companies should be forced to change auditors every 2 years to avoid the staff of each organisation becoming too pally with each other.
I used to audit a similar type organisation and every single euro was accounted for. The only extravagance I could see was cream buns being bought every morning.
It's inexplicable that such fraud could occur and not be detected in the first year. Ideally the auditors should be sued for incompetence but I think they cover themselves in the notes of the accounts by laying off responsibility to the Directors.

ednwireland

i always wondered what that place did, there seem to be loads of these places round, the previous directors should be hauled over the coals as well for not doing there duty of care.
whoever audited the accounts should be pulled up - but that won't happen because they normally have a disclaimer about information provided to them