A BUILDING society officials has been jailed for three years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for unlawfully obtaining £46,000 using ATM cash cards.
Terry O'Regan was arrested ink August 1994 after being identified on a video recording while he withdrew money from a First National Building Society account.
Gardai had installed video cameras at three ATM points in their investigation of unlawful cash withdrawals.
New addresses had been registered by O'Regan for "dormant"accounts with substantial cash balances and he had acquired ATM cards at these addresses to fraudulently withdraw cash.
O'Regan (30), married with two children, of Bromley Court, Glebemount, Wicklow, is to surrender himself voluntarily to the governor of Mountjoy Jail on June 19th to begin his sentence.
Judge Gerard Buchanan also directed that he surrender his passport and remanded him on continuing bail.
He praised what he called the "excellent Garda work" which led to the arrest. The defendant had no previous convictions.
O'Regan pleaded guilty to four charges of forgery and obtaining money by false pretences on dates in 1993 and 1994.
He originally faced 42 charges, of which 30 were taken into consideration. The total involved was £45,900. All the victims had been fully reimbursed by the FNBS.
Det Garda Francis McGroder of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation said the defendant also misappropriated £15,000 of his father in law's money which had been lodged with the FNBS. He paid monthly interest to his father in law on the investment to avoid detection.
The money had been spent on high living involving heavy drinking, expensive meals and gambling, Judge Buchanan was told.
O'Regan became involved in crime because of pressure at his work in the FNBS following a dispute with a supervisor.
Det Garda McGroder told Mr Shane Murphy, prosecuting, that the bureau was called in after an FNBS cashier in the Grafton Street branch became concerned about an account. She stopped transactions on it immediately.
It was discovered that the defendant had moved on to another account and was with drawing cash from it at nine ATM points around Dublin. Cameras were installed at three of them, and O'Regan was identified by the video recording at a Fairview cash point, said Det Garda McGroder.
Mr Erwan Mill Arden SC, defending, said his client's career had been ruined by his behaviour. His client apologised publicly to the FNBS and accepted he owed a debt to his former employer.
He was now living on social welfare, and the Eastern Health Board also paid £300 per month of a substantial mortgage he hash with the FNBS on his home.
Mr Mill Arden said his client was studying business management, but his career prospects were now marred.