Man (59) admits 300 counts of theft using fuel cards
A 59 year old man admitted using the bank account details of two charities to set up Topaz fuel cards, Dundalk Circuit Court heard last week.
Eugene Cummins (59) Finian’s Park, Drogheda, admitted over 300 counts of theft between 2010 and 2015 using a system whereby he obtained a number of fuel cards from Topaz.
The court heard Topaz were at a loss of €12,886 as a result of the fraudulent scheme.
Investigating gardai told the court that in some cases he used variations of his own name, and bank accounts that were closed or accounts that had no money in them. He also accessed the account and sort code number of two charities, including The Moses Foundation in Cork, details that he found online.
In what was described as ‘a system lacking in sophistication’ the defendant used the same address, his own, in applying for all of the fuel cards.
The court heard the scheme ‘came to a screeching halt’ after Topaz made contact with Mr. Cummins after a series of transactions were returned upaid.
Topaz had initially pursued a civil action against the accused, and an agreement was reached with him to pay back €200 a month.
Cummins reduced the payments to €25 a week in 2016, but in 2017 he stopped the repayments altogether.
The court was told he is currently on disability allowance due to health problems.
Defence counsel told the court that Mr. Cummins had admitted being the only user of the cards. He said that ‘none of the benefits were to live a lavish lifestyle,’ adding that the system he was using was ‘a way to keep the bills down.’
He expressed ‘extreme and genuine remorse’ for his actions and in particular to the town charities involved. He said he was ‘in extreme financial diffulty’ but accepted this was ‘no excuse.’
Defence counsel told the court that the accused found the scheme had ‘spiralled out of control, and the longer it went on, the hard it was to stop it.’
Judge Martina Baxter said that the ‘reality was that it only stopped when he was brought to court.’
The court heard that he had out a car up for sale on Done Deal, and wa shoping to have the funds from that to pay the remaining €7,712 owed to Topaz.’
Judge Baxter said he was a man ‘of nearly 60 years of age, and what example was this for his family.’ She remanded him in custody until November 30th to ‘get his house in order’ and ordered an updated Probation report before sentencing.