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Suspended sentence for employee who stole from Brown Thomas Galway
Galway Bay fm newsroom – A 36 year old employee with a serious gambling addiction, has been given a suspended two-year sentence for stealing almost €50,000 from Brown Thomas Galway.
Jennifer Keady, of 333 Boireann Beag, Roscam, first appeared before Galway Circuit Criminal Court in April.
She had she pleaded guilty to the theft of 49 thousand 800 euro from Brown Thomas, Eglinton Street, between March 1st and August 27th last year.
Detective Sergeant Willie Byrne told the sentencing hearing that Keady started working in the cash office at the store in October 2011.
She took over the office in 2012 when the young woman running it fell seriously ill.
She immediately began to misappropriate cash which was being delivered on a regular basis by a security company and issued false lodgement slips to cover her tracks.
Staff at Brown Thomas called in the Gardaí and they went to Keady’s home on September 21, 2012 where they found a pencil case containing €3,500 during the search.
Keady admitted to stealing €100 a day at first to feed her gambling addiction but as it spiralled out of control she was taking more.
She calculated she had stolen €52,000 but managed to repay €2,200 by the time Gardaí closed in on her.
She realised she could never repay the money as she had gambled it away.
She knew the office was going to be audited on August 27th that year and she crashed her car on purpose on the motorway, breaking a bone, so as to avoid having to come into work that day.
She also took a drugs overdose the night before the Gardaí interviewed her.
Defence barrister, Geri Silke said her client had had a serious gambling addiction but had since turned her life around with the help of Gamblers’ Anonymous.
Ms Silke said Keady had brought €1,000 to court and was very sorry for what she had done.
Judge Rory McCabe directed the €3,500 found in the pencil case along with the €1,000 be returned to the store and said justice would not be served by sending the accused to prison.
Her early plea, her remorse and her efforts to seek help for her addiction merited a two-year sentence, he said.
The judge suspended the sentence for five years to act, he said, as both a deterrent and incentive to Keady to continue to rehabilitate herself.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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