A WOMAN who stole more than €200,000 from the solicitor’s office where she worked has been jailed for two years.
Rebecca O’Leary (34), Oak Drive, Hillview, Waterford, admitted eight counts of theft and one count of forgery while she worked at O’Donoghue Hackett solicitors in Waterside, Waterford, in 2008.
Waterford Circuit Court heard earlier in the week that O’Leary spent almost €16,000 on “lifestyle purchases” such as holidays, concert tickets, sports events and furniture during 2008. She also obtained a fraudulent mortgage during that year to try to cover up what she had already taken from a company account.
Garda Insp Anthony Pettit said O’Leary transferred €110,000 from a company account to her personal account on January 21st, 2008, and a further €5,000 on February 4th and €1,500 on February 6th.
In June of that year, she got a mortgage of €170,200 after fabricating a false separation agreement and forging her husband’s signature without his knowledge.
She used the mortgage loan to reimburse the company account and put €53,200 into her own account.
However, she later took more money from client accounts at the office, paying money into her own account and also paying off a credit card debt and a credit union loan.
O’Leary’s employer John O’Donoghue had to pay up to €230,000 to clients in compensation, the court was told.
Sentencing took place at the Circuit Court yesterday and Judge Gerard Griffin imposed a four-year sentence for each of the nine charges to which O’Leary pleaded guilty, to run concurrently.
The judge suspended the final two years of the sentence, noting that O’Leary had admitted the offences and co-operated with gardaí at the earliest opportunity.