Financial controller jailed over theft of €283,000

A financial controller who stole over €283,740 from his employer, Deutsche Bank through unauthorised use of his company credit card has been jailed for three years.

Patrick Moran (39) of Woodstown Rise, Knocklyon, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sample charges of stealing cash, falsifying documents and using a false instrument on dates between November 2011 and January 2013. He has no previous convictions.

Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said his client was addicted to buying technical equipment at the time.

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Moran was unlikely to reoffend and that he was now "unemployable" in his field.

The judge further accepted Moran suffered from depression but said he persisted in his wrongdoing while in a position of trust.

Det Garda Kieran Tansey told Fergal Foley, prosecuting, that Moran stole over €283,740 from Deutsche Bank where he worked as a financial controller after falsifying documents to increase the limit of his company credit card.

He either used the card directly to pay for various items or diverted various amounts through Paypal from one Paypal account to another.

Moran also altered bi-annual reports he submitted to the Company Registration Office to cover his tracks.

Det Gda Tansey said that although the bank managed to retrieve €15,000 of the stolen money, it cost €50,000 in legal fees to achieve this. He said there was no prospect of any of the rest of the cash being recovered.

Moran used the money purely to fund his own lifestyle and lost his job as soon as the theft was discovered. He made admissions to gardaí­ when arrested.

Det Gda Tansey agreed with Patrick Gageby SC, defending, that Moran told gardaí­ he had been suffering from depression and was on medication to treat this. He has a five-year-old son with his wife.

Mr Gageby handed a number of medical reports in to court and said his client had previously spent seven weeks in a psychiatric hospital.

He said Moran accepted it was “a breach of trust for someone in a position of authority” and acknowledged that he had let his wife and child down.

“He became embroiled in dishonesty and just kept going. He is not wedded to the criminal lifestyle,” Mr Gageby said.