An accountant's office manager who wrote her own name on blank cheques worth almost £17,000 intended to pay the Revenue Commissioners has had her sentence further adjourned to June next to enable her continue repayments.
Sharon Fagan (24), St Michan's Flats, Dublin 7, embezzled the money to pay a deposit on a house because of her commitment to her former boyfriend.
She pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to seven sample counts out of 10 that she deposited into her Bank of Ireland account cheques drawn on the Allied Irish Bank account of a client of the accountancy firm she worked for.
Defence counsel, Mr George Birmingham SC, told Judge Frank O'Donnell his client had repaid £2,900 so far of the outstanding £13,000 since her last court appearance in March 2003 but should have repaid £4,200 at this stage.
She had missed two payments and only part-paid another one. This was due to her now much lower income because she now worked in a fast-food shop earning the minimum wage.
She had reimbursed individual victims and asked for more time to keep making £500 monthly payments on the outstanding amount to the insurance company as compensation.
Mr Birmingham (with Mr Breffni Gordon BL) said Fagan's father blamed her former boyfriend for what happened. She had become sucked into the crime to try to save the relationship but that had now soured.
Garda Firnan Lynch said Fagan had already repaid a total of £25,000 to another client she had defrauded at the same time of £20,000. She committed the offences before the court on various dates between September 1st, 2000 and July 9th, 2001.
Garda Lynch said she had defrauded a total of £16,692 but only managed to deposit £13,412 into her account because she was discovered attempting to lodge a cheque for £3,280.
Garda Lynch said Ms Fagan had advised the client she defrauded that the best way to pay the Revenue Commissioners was to give her blank cheques, which she would deposit into the necessary account as required.
Her offences were discovered when her client's bank rang him to enquire about a mistake on the date of a cheque. The bank told him that the cheque, for £3,280, was made out to Fagan and not to the Revenue Commissioners.
