A credit controller who stole almost €1.7 million from Finglas Credit Union over a seven year period has been jailed for three years. Paul O’Brien (51) took out fraudulent loans and stole cheques in order to make repayments on his own debt. The money was used to fund his severe gambling addiction and on three occasions to pay either his mortgage or credit card bills.
Garda Lisa Sheehan confirmed that the total amount taken from the credit union was €1,669, 696 in the form of 215 fraudulent loans and 13 stolen cheques, however because he used some of the cash to make repayments on the loans, the total net loss to the credit union was €453,300. The father of three pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. He has no previous convictions and has since sought help for his addiction . O’Brien has been out of work since the charge.
O’Brien said he had a gambling addiction and all the money he had taken was used to fund that addiction. A number of documents were handed into the court including letters from Gamblers Anonymous and from people in his locality. Several authors of these letters were in court to support O’Brien. A psychological report concluded that O’Brien’s gambling addiction has been in remission for three years.