Bank worker edited ATM file to hide €85k theft
A BANK employee who stole €85,000 from Permanent TSB has been given a 14-month suspended prison sentence.
Lisa Redmond, 38, falsified a document to make the ATM at the branch at Gorey, Co. Wexford, look like it had a higher balance in order to cover up her transferral of the huge sum.
She previously pleaded guilty before Judge Cormac Quinn at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court to dishonestly transferring €85,000 from the bank’s cash reserve account.
Redmond also admitted falsifying a document in order to inflate the figure for the ATM cash reserve hold in the branch by €80,000 and inflating the previous day’s balance by €5,000 – totalling the amount she stole.
Garda Sergeant Ian Hayes told the court that Redmond worked at Permanent TSB in Gorey. On July 20, 2015, she falsified the ATM reserve figure to cover up her theft.
Sgt Hayes said there was a shortfall of funds in the Gorey branch where the defendant worked as an assistant manager. There was an extensive Garda investigation on April 7, 2016. He said that a cash holdall blue bag played an extensive role in hiding the shortfall for it contained damaged notes and gave her some cover.
Explaining the fraud to the court, Sgt Hayes said it was just a bag where damaged and destroyed notes that are not fit for recirculation are put. At one stage on the outside of the bag, the figure of €85,000 was written. However, when gardaí counted the money inside, they found just €10,400.
Sgt Hayes told the court that the defendant later met with the branch manager Pádraig Ronan along with the regional manager. At the meeting the defendant said she had discovered the shortfall and to protect the staff she decided to cover up the loss. She also lied and said she didn’t know who committed the theft.
Defence counsel Philip Sheahan SC said it was an extensive inquiry but that the investigation revealed no evidence of personal gain for Redmond. He said that Redmond, of Graiguebeg, Bunclody, Co. Wexford, left work early on that date but met the manager later when she admitted falsifying the accounts. She said that her motivation was to cover for the staff.
Sgt Hayes agreed there was an early plea of guilty and that the defendant comes from a highly respected family. She had no previous convictions and had not come to the attention of gardaí since.
In court she apologised for what had happened, and apologised to the manager, as she had made a mistake. She also said sorry to her fellow employees, and the gardaí. She apologised to her family as it has been a very difficult time for them.
At the moment, she said, she is not working but wants to get back to full employment.
Replying to prosecuting counsel Sinéad Gleeson, the defendant said the blue bag was used to disguise what had happened. From July 2010 to July 2015, the blue bag was used and she wrote the balance on the outside of the bag. The figure on the outside was €85,000. She had used the blue bag to balance the accounts and changed the figure on the bag to reflect the difference.
Judge Quinn said the headline sentence for such a crime would be two years and nine months, but he would impose 14 months, which he would suspend in its entirety, on the defendant entering a bond of €200 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 14 months.
She lied in meeting with managers