A MOTHER of two convicted of stealing over €8,000 from an elderly neighbour was yesterday spared going to jail after her victim told gardaí she would not like to see her being imprisoned.
Elizabeth Nunan (53), from Lissard, Burnfort, Mallow, Co Cork, had been convicted by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court of 27 counts of theft in which she used bank cards to withdraw cash without the permission of the owner, Mary Murphy, between January and March 2010.
Garda James O’Riordan told the court yesterday the matter came to light when a member of staff at Bank of Ireland, Main Street, Mallow, became suspicious about the level of withdrawal activity on Ms Murphy’s account and contacted gardaí.
Gardaí launched an investigation and arrested and questioned Nunan, who admitted using the ATM card and admitted it was her who was shown on CCTV footage withdrawing the cash in lots of €300, but she insisted that she had the permission of Ms Murphy.
However, Ms Murphy told the court during the course of a four-day trial that she had never given her permission or consent to Nunan to withdraw money from her account. The jury believed her and unanimously convicted Nunan on all 27 counts.
Garda O’Riordan said Nunan was a neighbour of Ms Murphy and was very kind to her over the years following the death of Ms Murphy’s husband.
Ms Murphy had told him following Nunan’s conviction that she would not like to see the accused going to jail.
He said Nunan’s legal team had come to court with a credit union draft for €15,000 as compensation for the money stolen from Ms Murphy, and when he alerted Ms Murphy to the possibility that she might be offered such a sum, she said it would be more than sufficient.
Nunan had never come to the attention of gardaí before and had no previous convictions, said Garda O’Riordan, adding he believed Nunan’s having spent two days in jail while on remand for sentence was a salutary lesson. He did not believe she would ever reoffend.
Nunan’s barrister, Stephen O’Donoghue, said his client used to carry out household chores for Ms Murphy, but that temptation had got the better of her and led to the offences. The offer of €15,000 was both compensation and a genuine expression of her remorse.
He said his client’s husband worked nights, and imposing a custodial sentence would impose a huge hardship in terms of looking after their two teenage children, who lived at home. He asked Judge Con Murphy to consider a non-custodial sentence.
Judge Murphy accepted Nunan’s expression of remorse through the offer of compensation, noted that Ms Murphy did not wish to see her neighbour go to jail, and accepted that Nunan was unlikely to reoffend.
He said taking these factors into account – along with a testimonial from former parish priest of Mourneabbey Canon Jackie Corkery, that Nunan had done much good in the community – he believed the appropriate sentence was three years’ jail suspended on condition she be of good behaviour.