A former school principal and captain of Derry's senior GAA football team over 30 years ago was given a suspended sentence at the Crown Court in Derry yesterday after he admitted stealing £65,000 from an elderly woman 10 years ago in an attempt to pay off business debts.
Peter Stevenson (60), who is originally from Dungiven, now lives with his partner and their six children at Bunn, Blueball, near Tullamore.
He told Judge Corinne Philpott that the shame of what he had done to a family friend would always live with him. Stevenson, who also has five children by an earlier marriage, admitted stealing the money between April 27th, 1993, and May 4th, 1993, from the woman, who now suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
At the time he worked as an insurance salesman for Sun Life Assurance, after he had given up his job as principal of Dernaflaw Primary School in Dungiven, and had been a friend of the woman's family for 20 years.
He told the court: "I have lost something you can never reclaim and that is my good name." He said his partner was due to have had exploratory surgery for a potentially serious illness yesterday, but because of the court sentencing the surgery was postponed.
Judge Philpott described the case as "exceptional given all the circumstances". She imposed a four-year prison sentence, suspended for three years. Det Constable Chris Berry said the prosecution would not have been possible without Stevenson's full co-operation. He said when he called at the defendant's home earlier this year, Stevenson said to him: "I have been waiting for this for a long time."
A prosecution barrister said the elderly woman defrauded by Stevenson had inherited £80,000 worth of Italian government bonds following the death in 1992 of a relative who lived near Rome. Stevenson accompanied the woman to Rome and said he would invest the money for her to give her a monthly income of £375. The lawyer said following the deduction of inheritance tax by the Italian authorities the women was left with £65,000.
"While none of the £65,000 has been recovered, Sun Life Assurance, who were his employer at that time, paid over to the women £87,998.75 which was the equivalent to the loss plus interest," he added.
Tom Cahill QC, defending, said Stevenson, against the advice of colleagues, gave up his job as a school principal 20 years ago and started several business ventures, all of which "went belly-up". He said the money received from the theft went to repay debts.
"He has let his family down, his extended family down, the whole Stevenson clan down, the woman who he lives with down and he feels that very acutely. He accepts the fact he has done a wrong and betrayed a trust placed in him."