A WOMAN who used a medicine bottle top and boot polish to defraud An Post of £2,000 in one month has been given a four year suspended sentence.
Judge Cyril Kelly at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court also ordered Niamh Byrne to enter into a bond to stay out of trouble for the next five years.
"This medicine will meet the justice of the case - if she commits any offence in the next five years she will serve the four year sentence as well," he said.
She used the bottle top and boot polish to make a crude forgery of the official teller's stamps in her savings book. Byrne (25), a mother of one of Mountain View Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin pleaded guilty to six sample charges of obtaining money by false pretences from Nutgrove Post Office.
She opened the account with £2 and using her "stamp" changed the amount entered on her book to £320. Days later, she withdrew £190 from her account.
She continued making false lodgement entries on her savings book and withdrawing money, Det Garda John McEnery said at an earlier hearing.
Her family were known to the post office staff and she was accepted at her word. But after a month, the post master became suspicious and called in gardai. She was arrested having defrauded An Post of £2,016.