A former Bank of Ireland worker has been jailed for one year for stealing €144,000 from the bank between 2004 and 2012.
Alice Warnock from Rathbeale Court in Swords, Co. Dublin was arrested following an internal investigation while she was on sick leave.
The 55-year-old mother of two has since paid the money back but the judge felt a custodial sentence was necessary.
Alice Warnock started working with Bank of Ireland in 1980.
In May 2012, she was attached to a support centre in Dublin and was on sick leave when it carried out an internal investigation.
A complaint was made to Gardai and she was found to have misappropriated funds from the bank into several personal accounts, and some belonging to various family members, all of whom were unaware of what she was doing.
The amounts stolen between 2004 and 2012 ranged from €600 to €5,000 – the total amount stolen was just over €144,000.
Following her arrest, the court heard she co-operated fully with Gardai, and just said it all got “out of hand”.
She told them she was sorry and “felt like a fool”.
Today, Judge Melanie Greally heard she has since paid back everything she stole and her barrister Lorcan Staines asked for a number of mitigating factors to be taken into consideration, including her early pleas and lack of previous convictions.
What she did was heavily reported on in the media, he said, and her professional and personal reputations have been damaged.
He said she has lost her job and had to sell her house and he asked the court to consider the “totality of hardship”.
Judge Greally said she had, but she said it was evident his client had occupied a position of responsibility in the bank and there was a very considerable breach of trust.
She said the offences weren’t committed because of financial pressures, but rather to enhance her lifestyle.
She said there was a public interest that activity of this kind committed by persons in her position must be marked by an appropriate sentence, which she felt was 12 months in prison.
Our Courts Correspondent Frank Greaney reports: