Accountant who cheated firm out of €1.7m is jailed

A GALWAY accountant has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after stealing £1.5million (€1.7million) to fund expensive holidays, champagne, shopping trips to Selfridges and tickets for Ireland rugby international games.

Sentencing Gerard Lawless in an English court, Judge Alan Greenwood described the level of deceit and spending as ‘staggering’.

Even the champagne for Lawless’s son’s wedding was paid on a company credit card, the court heard.

The month-long case was brought by Vincent Tickel, a public relations executive who hired 60-year-old Gerard Lawless to do his accounts.

Lawless took the money over 11 years – mainly from Mr Tickel’s two public relations companies, Hunter Worldwide and Carbon Marketing.

A jury at St Albans crown court found Lawless of Rosedale, Taylor’s Hill, Galway, guilty of theft and fraud by abuse of position. He and his wife Angela Lawless previously lived in Harpenden, south-east England.

Gideon Cammerman QC, prosecuting, told the jury Lawless stole the money between 2003 and 2014 in lots of different ways, all of which supported a luxurious lifestyle.

Mr Cammerman said Mr Tickel and others at the companies trusted Mr Lawless. ‘That trust was betrayed in a sustained way,’ said the barrister.

Adrian Waterman QC, defending, said some expenditure had been for business, not Lawless’s personal use, taking the amount of the fraud down to around £1.5million.

Judge Greenwood told Lawless: ‘The scale of the dishonesty proved against you is staggering in every respect.’

He said: ‘Over about ten years you abused the trust place in you.

‘You have shown no remorse. On the contrary you sought to justify your activities throughout the trial by saying you were entitled to the money.’ A confiscation hearing will take place on April 1.

After the case, Mr Tickel said: ‘This is a man with no remorse or shame.’