'Compulsive spender' defrauded EC office of €64,000

A "compulsive spender" defrauded the European Commission office in Dublin of €64,000 and used €34,000 of the money to reimburse previous employers whom she had also defrauded.

On the morning of November 9th, 2001, former EC accounts office worker Anne Levins, of Forest Park, Drogheda, Co Louth, defrauded the EC offices, Dawson St, Dublin, of €10,600.

Later that day she offered the money in court as a payment to two previous employers she had defrauded. On that occasion she was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for five years. However, she continued to defraud the EC offices in Dublin where she had gained employment.

Ms Levins faces up to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to 13 sample counts of 116 counts relating to 67 fraudulent transactions between August 2001 and April 2002.

Det Garda Michael McKenna, of the National Bureau of Fraud Investigation (NBFI), told Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Ms Levins had amassed "no assets to speak of".

She had compulsively spent a lot of the money on transient items. Other money had been used to pay household bills. She had also used defrauded cash to pay her Vodafone telephone bill and paid money to Quinn Direct, with whom her car was insured. Monies were also paid to settle amounts owed to the satellite television company Chorus.

In some cases she had made out cheques payable to herself and had paid them into An Post's "bill pay" system, through which her bills were paid.

Det Garda McKenna agreed with Brendan Grehan SC, devending, that "you wouldn't have to be Sherlock Holmes" to have solved the case.

The 35-year-old mother of one had made no effort to disguise her activities. She was "robbing Peter to pay Paul, without any great art".

Ms Levins had made out cheques to herself or paid to cash and had cashed them herself. In some cases the money was paid into her own bank account. She had forged the signatures of two people in the EC offices who were authorised to sign cheques.

In other cases letters from the commission instructing their bank, AIB, to pay debtors were altered in favour of Ms Levins.

In her position in the accounts office Ms Levins was "largely unsupervised". She had access to the petty cash box, chequebooks and to a safe.

She was responsible for sending accounts and transaction records to the EC's offices in Brussels on a regular basis.

Discrepancies in the accounts were first noticed by staff in Brussels. Officials were then dispatched to the Dublin office to carry out investigations.

In October 2002 staff from the Dublin office made a formal complaint to gardaí and an investigation was begun. When gardaí put the allegations to Ms Levins she accepted full responsibility and made herself available for interview.

Yesterday in court she produced a Credit Union draft for €28,000 for the EC. A further €29,000 would be available immediately. Both sums were from the proceeds of the sale of her home in Drogheda. She intended to fully reimburse the EC.

Judge Hogan deferred sentencing to October 20th to allow Ms Levins time to fully reimburse the EC.