Former company director stole €1m from employer to feed addiction

A former company director stole almost €1 million from his employer over six years to feed his alcoholism and gambling addiction, a court has heard.

Conrad Mason (46) will be sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on May 23rd for stealing a total of €908,652 from David Dixon of cleaning specialists C&G Logistics Group, on dates between January 2010 and January 2015.

Mason pleaded guilty on Thursday to 25 sample counts of theft and fraud, representing a total of 234 wrongful transactions from the company account to his own various bank accounts.

Mason of Elm Mount Close, Beaumont, Dublin worked for C&G as company accountant since August 1997 and was promoted to the position of director in 2004.

The court heard that C&G Logistics Group comprises two related companies involved in the warehousing, transport and pumping over of hazardous and non-hazardous chemicals for the agriculture and water treatment sectors.

Det Sgt Margaret Morrell told the court that between August 2014 and July 2015, Mason had transferred more than €250,000 from the company to two accounts in his name at Bank of Ireland, College Green and Ulster Bank in Ballsbridge.

When this emerged Mr Dixon contacted Mr Mason’s wife who was shocked and surprised and told him that her husband had had a gambling problem for years.

Mason phoned his boss and came clean, saying he had been taking funds from the company over the past five or six years, and that he had gambled with Paddy Power, primarily in online slot machines.

Major blow

Mr Dixon told gardaí that the company had suffered a major blow to its cash reserve since the fraud had been uncovered and had spent a great deal of time trying to recover and “pick up the pieces”.

He said his company was “suffering on a day-to-day basis”, and that on a personal note, his trust and faith in people had been “totally undermined and diminished”.

Mason has no previous convictions.

Michael Bowman SC, defending Mason, described him as a “self-made man” who had left school after the Leaving Cert and worked his way up with no formal qualifications to become “highly esteemed” at work.

He said Mason’s motivation was a “deep-seated addiction” and not a “get-richquick scheme” and that he did not exhibit the trappings of an ostentatious lifestyle or material wealth.

Judge Karen O’Connor adjourned the matter for sentencing until May 23rd.