Four-year suspended sentence for bank manager who stole €25,000

A 38-YEAR-OLD former Bank of Ireland manager has been given a four-year suspended jail term after she pleaded guilty to stealing up to €25,000 from the bank over a 19-month period.

Eucharia Chambers from Rockfield, Tralee Road, Killarney, Co Kerry, pleaded guilty to three sample charges relating to the theft of money from Bank of Ireland, Watergate Street, Kanturk, Co Cork, on various dates between April 15th, 2009, and October 12th, 2010.

Yesterday, Det Garda Pádraig Reddington told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that Chambers was the manager of the Bank of Ireland branch in Kanturk at the time and the theft began when her brother went to purchase dollars for a trip to the United States in April 2009.

Her brother didn’t have enough money in his account at the time to buy the amount of dollars he required but Chambers went ahead, unknown to her brother, and proceeded to take out cash from a sundry debits suspended account.

This was a special account used by the bank where money was lodged if there was any lack of clarity about the account number on a lodgment slip, and money was kept here until it became clear to what account it should be lodged, said Garda Reddington.

Chambers also withdrew €14,000 from this sundry debits suspended account in May 2010, while she also withdrew €3,000 from the account of a customer who happened to come into the bank days later and noticed the transaction from his account.

Another member of the bank staff had also noticed the withdrawal of cash from the sundry debits suspended account and asked Chambers to rectify matters on a number of occasions. When she failed to do so, the other staff member notified the regional manager.

The bank launched its own internal investigation and notified gardaí.

Chambers presented voluntarily for interview with gardaí and co-operated fully with the investigation, indicating early on that she was going to plead guilty.

Defence barrister Ray Boland asked for leniency, saying Chambers had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, had repaid €25,000 and had saved the State the expense and time of what had the potential to be a very complex trial.

Judge Patrick Moran accepted Mr Boland’s submission and said a probation report on Chambers made for “very sad reading” as it showed how she had lost “a wonderful career” in Bank of Ireland, where she had worked for 19 years, as a result of her actions.

He said that if he were to send her to jail immediately, it might put down a marker for anyone else contemplating something similar but he didn’t know what benefit it would be to her.

He imposed a four-year term but suspended it on condition she be of good behaviour.