A former senior bank official pleaded guilty before a special sitting of Carlow Circuit Court yesterday to a total of 27 charges of larceny, fraud, forgery, embezzlement, falsifying bank accounts and gaining money by false pretences.
Sean Kavanagh (46) Monacurragh, Carlow town, appeared on bail before yesterday's sitting.
Originally the indictment against him contained a total of 230 charges but when the case was called yesterday Mr Tom O'Connell SC, representing the State, said the defendant had indicated he would be taking a certain course.
Consequently, a total of just 27 charges from the original indictment would be put to him.
The charges covered five of embezzlement, three charges of forgery, five of false pretences and 14 charges of larceny on dates between December 15th 1989 and May 23rd 1997 at the Bank of Ireland, Bagenalstown.
The court heard that the defendant, an employee of the Bagenalstown branch of Bank of Ireland, was in charge of investment and securities and also worked as a back-up on foreign exchange and customer services.
A complaint had been made to gardaí concerning a possible fraud on July 24th, 1997.
While Mr Kavanagh was on holidays other bank staff had come across evidence that some "hocus pocus" had been happening regarding accounts.
Mr O'Connell said that Mr Kavanagh's modus operandi was to advise customers, often elderly people, to transfer money from savings accounts to accounts with higher interest. He set up "a bank within a bank" but it was completely fictitious.
The people defrauded had paper indicating they had assets within the bank but in reality Mr Kavanagh had taken their money for his own purposes. There had been no co-operation from the defendant and no money had been recovered.
Mr Michael Delaney, for the defence, said his client was a compulsive gambler and the money taken from the bank went to pay gambling debts.
Now separated from his wife and family since these matters came to light in 1997, the defendant now worked as a taxi-driver in the Carlow area.
Judge Pat McCartan remanded Kavanagh on continuing bail to the April 7th sitting of Carlow Circuit Court for the preparation of probation and psychiatric reports.