Ex-director of charity admits he stole €1m
A FORMER charity director stole over €1m from that voluntary organisation and friends and family while acting as a bookkeeper, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
Greg Walsh (70) came to court on signed pleas of guilty to 119 thefts totalling €998,476 from various parties, including Carline Learning Centre in Dublin, between 2008 and 2016.
He signed further pleas of guilty to four thefts totalling €150,000 from Bank of Ireland on dates in February and March 2015.
The Carline Learning Centre thefts of over €280,000 came to light when a staff member noticed discrepancies on the accounts when signing off on them before retirement.
Detective Garda Padraig Jennings revealed that Walsh had been director and treasurer of Carline Learning Centre, a Clondalkin-based charity for disadvantaged young people. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard he misappropriated funds to pay the charity’s tax bills by lodging the cheques into his own account before making direct debit payments on Revenue’s online system.
The father of four, of Woodbrook Crescent, Castleknock, Dublin, has no previous convictions.
Det Gda Jennings told Diana Stuart BL, prosecuting, that Carline Learning Centre still had an outstanding bill to Revenue as a result of the misappropriated money. The detective said it had only managed to stay afloat through public support.
He agreed with Patrick McGrath SC, defending, that gardaí thought they would be investigating the Carline matter only, when Walsh revealed details of the other injured parties.
Det Gda Jennings said these included friends who gave Walsh money to invest on their behalf while he acted as their bookkeeper. In each case, Walsh repaid the parties what they thought were dividends on their investments.
Det Gda Jennings said in other cases Walsh acted as tax agent to friends and his nephew, who would give him money for Revenue. The detective revealed that in many cases the funds received from individuals were not forwarded to Revenue, but used to pay the tax bills of other injured parties. He said these injured parties had suffered Revenue implications as a result.
The only injured party to make a victim impact statement lost €14,138 through Walsh acting as his tax agent. The man said he couldn’t pay his mortgage or feed his family as Revenue had frozen his accounts.
Det Gda Jennings agreed that €785,095 was the net loss to various parties after all repayments to date.
Mr McGrath asked Judge Codd to adjourn the sentencing to allow Walsh attend clinical appointments over the summer for his serious heart condition.
Judge Codd granted the adjournment and put the matter back until October.