An accountant has been jailed for defrauding a golf club of thousands of euros by swapping the bank details of creditors with her own bank account details.
Cheryl Robinson (49) of Large Road, Rathdrum, County Wicklow, pleaded guilty to theft contrary to Section 4 of the Fraud and Theft Offences Act.
The indictment detailed how, on dates between Oct 2018 and July 2020, Robinson defrauded €28,261 belonging to Foxrock Golf Club by swapping the IBAN on creditor invoices with an IBAN number associated with her own personal bank account.
The accused used the money to pay for “bills”, the court heard, as she was the sole provider for her children.
In 2010, she was jailed after she pleaded guilty to 72 charges related to the theft of €125,000 from a former employer, when she was known as Cheryl Byrne.
Sentencing her for the theft from Foxrock Golf Club today, Judge Orla Crowe said that the fraud was “unsophisticated” and was easily detceted one a treasurer at the club became suspicious after a wine supplier was not paid.
The court noted that the accused moved the money into her own account over an almost two-year period. The accused’s mental state and difficult personal circumstances were also noted by the court.
Judge Crowe said that the “breach of trust is considerable,” and that the time frame of the offending was “an aggravating factor”.
She noted that the accused was the “sole provider” for her children and had been the subject of an “unhappy marriage” and was “under stress” at the time.
A letter of remorse was submitted to the court; however, it was noted that this chiefly referred to the “impact of her offending on her family, not really on the injured party”. It was also noted that there was no money put forward to compensate for the loss.
The court set a headline sentence of four years before reducing this to three years, with the final 18 months suspended for one year.
The accused is to make herself available to the Probation Services for a period of 12 months upon her release.