Derry All-Ireland winner charged with £570,000 fraud

A former all-Ireland football championship winner has been ordered to stand trial accused of stealing over £500,000 from his employer.

At Coleraine Magistrates Court, accountant John Malachy McGurk (49) was charged with a single count of theft of £572,206 from his employers at Kilrea quarry Patrick Bradley Ltd.

Mr McGurk, from Oakland Crescent in Knockloughrim, Magherafelt, won an all-Ireland title with Derry in 1993.

He was further charged with 36 counts of committing fraud by abusing the position he held within Patrick Bradley Ltd to lodge various sums of allegedly stolen money into his own Bank of Ireland savings account with all of the offences alleged to have occurred on various dates between July 1st, 2006 and December 31th, 2011.

Although no facts surrounding the fraud were opened in court, a prosecuting lawyer declared there was a orima facie case against Mr McGurk based on the legal papers before the court, a submission his defence solicitor took no issue with.

The court clerk told McGurk while he was not obliged to, he had the right to give evidence to the preliminary enquiry or call witnesses in his behalf but that anything said would be written down “and maybe given in evidence at your trial.”

The court heard Mr McGurk remained silent.

Releasing McGurk on his own bail of £750, District Judge Liam McNally granted legal aid and ordered him to appear before Antrim Crown Court on November 19th.

In the 1980s and 90s, McGurk played as a half back for Derry GAA, winning four Derry titles, two Ulster titles and one all-Ireland title in 1993.

For his performances in the 1993 championship he won an All Stars Award and he won the All-Ireland senior club football championship in 1991 with Lavey GAA, where he was captain.