Virgin Media Payroll theft

gmisk

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/payroll-worker-jailed-for-stealing-870-000-from-virgin-media-tv-1.4780465

"Payroll worker jailed for stealing €870,000 from Virgin Media TV" they recovered a grand total of 30,000.

I mean who among us hasn't stolen 870 thousand from our job and frittered it away?

4 years...2 suspended...so out in a year...good money for a year in prison!

Strumms

Goes to show how fûcked up our judiciary are, well and truly…absolute imbeciles.

870,000 on low end items ? right. Doesn’t even make sense…so what if it was spent it on toilet paper ? she still nicked just under or the guts of one million quid. If she was buying a new Maybach a year or toilet paper it’s still the act of nicking 870,000 that warrants punishment.

nick the guts of a million quid from your employer, do one year then get out to start spending it. Meanwhile the current employees probably begging for a slight pay increase…. Employer be …. “ ughhh sorry we are down xxx,xxx”

’justice’ apparently :). Ohh yeah and it will be future and current customers paying for it.

Ryano87

Have to wonder what internal / external audit looked at not to cop it for 10 years.... Especially given it was such a small payroll function

I think we need a national conversation about women stealing from companies tbh

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502578#Comment_118502578

Have to agree with you.

I know of two instances both woman stealing from payroll...both hushed up no court case etc.

FromADistance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502569#Comment_118502569

In the meantime, Virgin Media haven't forgot how to rob their customers on a monthly basis...

Gusser09

The guts of a million quid. 12 months rent free and fully fed.

Our sentencing is a joke. For everything.

colm_mcm

totally hasn’t stashed the bulk of the money away.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502738#Comment_118502738

How the hell could anyone fritter away that amount? She isn't fecking Elton John!

Gusser09

Does she own a house or car? Surely could be offset against the money she stroked.

I saw a line from her defence " she is the glue that holds the family together".

The rest of the must be some beauts.

Are they trying to encourage criminality?

It's so frustrating for law abiding citizens who work their asses off year in, year out.

FromADistance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502751#Comment_118502751

I particularly loved the line where her barrister said the money was used to “soften the edges of family life”. 100k a year for 10 years would be an effective annual gross salary of 200k+ .... it surely did "soften the edges"...

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502799#Comment_118502799

Just keeping the gray train rolling.

cap.in.hand.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502751#Comment_118502751

The husband was prancing down the steps of the court wearing blue shorts in January...and waved at the camera

Gusser09

She should be made pay it back. Put some hassle back on them. If shes getting 188 quid take 88 off her. It'll never get paid back but thats besides the point. Thats the only thing that will really hurt these scroungers. Hit them in the pocket.

drivingmissdaisy

I'm going to have to look into robbing, seem very lucrative will VERY little downside if caught

Gatling

Surely CAB should be investigating where the cash went ,and apparently doesn't own property.

AyeGer

Shockingly low sentence. Her name is dirt though in her locality id imagine, especially from potential employers.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503840#Comment_118503840

Wouldnt think they care. Money stashed. Dole would be probably 400 quid a week between them. Social housing. No way they spend almost a million.

I assume she has to give the money back?

mickdw

Only 30k to be found.

The rest is well hidden. I don't know but hopefully cab could come along later and seize any property they buy if no visible means to buy it.

slay55

Maybe spent it mostly on food for herself judging from the article I read

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503825#Comment_118503825

No apart from denial of freedom, loss of job, reputation, having a criminal record for the rest of your life that will restrict work and even travel opportunities.

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118506979#Comment_118506979

She doesn't have to work welfare Wil provide her and her fella everything they need , even though they have hundreds of thousands stashed away

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507094#Comment_118507094

No evidence that she has money stashed away, that would have been found.

And welfare comment is just pure barstool stuff.

I'd say she's in her cell now with a lot of regret.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507147#Comment_118507147

Do you think it would be easy to fritter away 875k?

Definitely plenty of that left just not in Ireland/in her name

padd b1975

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502569#Comment_118502569

There was an audit, but they were left on hold for ten years when they tried to report the findings to management.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507552#Comment_118507552

You mean to say auditors picked up on the theft, tried to report it to management in Virgin, and they were ignored?

enricoh

I remember some oul dear got done a few years ago for robbing 50k ish from her employer. It transpired she spent the dough on psychic phone lines!

I reckon I'd be more embarrassed by that revelation than getting nabbed in the first place!

Archeron

In fairness, can anybody commenting on this say that they've never been walking down the high street of the local town and spotted that simply must have faberge egg in the window of the local jewellers? There's a very exciting episode of cash in the attic to be made at some point in the future.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507728#Comment_118507728

Or it was a joke about Virgin's propensity for leaving callers on hold for eons...

1874

What can you spend on low end items to dispose of 840k out of 870k euros?? doesnt surprise me, but unless she is a violent dangerous offender, only costs the taxpayer more to put her away for longer, not that I condone what she did, but VM must be idiots to have missed it too. If any of that money is stashed away, they will hardly see any benefit as they cant spend it themselves unless they can do it discreetly?so nothing high end, cars, jewelry or the like, pay in cash for everything and no you'll never have any money worries for sure, if its still around, she'd have to be handing it out to go through that much.

MarkEadie

Very very light sentence considering the crime. Especially with only 30k being returned. I highly doubt a man would have got the same sentence if he'd committed the crime.

jojofizzio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502751#Comment_118502751

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507147#Comment_118507147

Yeah right .....

Save the bleeding heart I'm sure she's going to be sitting in her cell wondering what boardsies are saying ..

But yes welfare Will support her and the fella until the pension age

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507889#Comment_118507889

OK, now I get it!

TP_CM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118502945#Comment_118502945

Unfortunately we all want that to happen, but we also want to ignore the effect that would have on her kids. The courts are sick of people like this, but the kids shouldn't have to suffer. Pity they can't punish her without the kids suffering.

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503840#Comment_118503840

Handy excuse in the unlikely event of social welfare saying she has to look for a job.

I wouldn't think she's too bothered.

TP_CM

How do you take this much money without sections like Finance or Audit or even the executives knowing? Did she process payroll giving herself a crazy 500k salary or something?

techman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507905#Comment_118507905

and all the talk over the last few weeks about "toxic masculinity" etc and the media let this story slip under the radar because it doesn't fit in with that agenda. At the very least the authorities should have exerted alot more pressure to extract much more of that money back from her.

steamsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507984#Comment_118507984

Likely fictitious employees with her bank account. Simple and standard payroll controls would prevent and detect this

For Forks Sake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118508027#Comment_118508027

Article I read yesterday said she kept the payroll details of employees who had left the company active as cover, with the payments going into accounts controlled by her.

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2022/0119/1274604-kellie-walton/

The court heard that in order to steal the money, Walton would make unauthorised payments to casual staff in the name of people who previously worked there and falsified the relevant documentation to support the payment.

She would then transfer the amount to one of two bank accounts and later either withdraw the money as cash or transfer the funds to her own bank account.

Editman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118503874#Comment_118503874

Over 10 years. Not hard at all to spend 87k a year on wasteful crap, holidays, lotto tickets, the works. Social housing is irrelevant.

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118508167#Comment_118508167

Why would she be buying lotto tickets?

TP_CM

And how did they catch her after all this time?

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118509469#Comment_118509469

Yeh its mad. Miss your direct debit and they have you cut off in ten minutes. Rob a million and they take 10 years to catch you.

MarkEadie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118509487#Comment_118509487

Yeah I have been a little suspicious as to how she got away with it for so long. Quite a good little thing she had going on all by herself.

SamStonesArm

She steals 870,000 and gets two years whereas yesterday my best mate got 10 years cos he had a grow house. It's fooking disgraceful, how the hell can you not only steal but do it many times all adding upto 870,000 and get 2 years.

Judges in this country are fooking mental.

MarkEadie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118509739#Comment_118509739

Shes a woman, which equals a much lighter sentence than a man would get. It's insane to compare the two. I suspect we will see much more fraudulent and money related crimes by women. It's already seen in gangland. Isn't the DPP seeking harsher charges for one of a bag mans woman. I think she got off with a suspended sentence. It's a no brainer when you have a legal system as it is and plenty of women who would take a year or two inside for a huge gain. Law enforcement are going to have to come down heavily on women, the same way they do with men for the same crime. Otherwise they are just creating a loophole that will continue to be exploited for huge gains.

Kurooi

It'd take a 160K Gross salary to make 87k annum net. Plus her and husband working. they had an income equivalent of 6 average households. Argument it was used to smoothen the edges. Seriously. That's just insulting.

I don't believe it at all. 10 years of scheming, 870k. nothing to show for it? No houses no cars to confiscate? No mention of drug addictions? What did this cunning person spend it all on then. All she has to do is sit through this laughable time and come out to wherever she stashed the money.

You go girl, well done.

Polar101

87k a year is, what, 240 euro a day - that's a lot of money to spend on "low end" items and "soften the edges", and I assume she still got paid for the job she was supposed to be doing. Two years in prison (+2 suspended) and a stash of cash once you get out sounds like a pretty good deal.