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A Sligo mother of three who stole a total of € 271,000 from the elderly and vulnerable has been imprisoned for eleven months in Sligo Circuit Court.
Maeve Diamond, 46-year-old former EBS employee of Main Street, Ballintogher, Co Sligo, focused on seniors’ lifetime savings at the EBS Grattan Street, Sligo branch where she worked as a financial advisor.
The defendant has not returned a penny, the court heard.
The EBS has compensated all the victims.
Her victims said that she had abused her position as a financial advisor and “trusted employee.”
When asked where the money went, Diamond said it was spent on “life and his family.”
“It was mainly to spoil the children, they got the best of everything,” he said.
He said that the day he entered the Garda station to confess his crimes was a safer life and that he did not know how to stop the robbery.
Diamond admitted to stealing € 271,000 from ten bank accounts between 2011 and 2016.
He also pleaded guilty to ten counts of making a false instrument to forge a signature on account withdrawal receipts.
63 more counts were considered.
In jailing the tearful mother of three, Judge Francis Comerford said her crime “was calculated dishonesty, creating false instruments in deliberate and sustained dishonesty over a period of time.”
The judge said it was a “very clever felony, but not a sophisticated crime or in any way clever and it was a self-destructive crime.”
In doing so, she had betrayed her colleagues, her employers, and EBS clients who had placed their trust in her.
The judge added that he believed that her troubled childhood had led her “into a pattern of criminality, led her down a path of dishonesty motivated mainly by an almost compulsive need to obtain benefits for her children.”
The court was informed that the fraud was discovered on July 15, 2016 when one of her victims, Roisin Curneen, discovered that € 90,000 of her husband’s and her life savings had disappeared from her EBS account, Grattan Street.
The court was informed that in 2013, 80-year-old James Ferguson discovered that € 12,949 had disappeared from his account.
Diamond told her that the money would be returned to her account and she told him that she was afraid of losing her job.
Mr. Ferguson said he felt sorry for her.
The court was told that Diamond moved money between several accounts to cover his tracks.
The court heard that Diamond took money from clients’ savings accounts without their knowledge, accounts that were not being monitored by clients, or those for which clients did not want account statements.
When his crimes were discovered, Diamond quit his job and admitted his crime to the Gardaí.
She told Gardaí that she was “stunned” when she was informed of the amount she had stolen and that she “had nothing to show.”
Diamond, who suffers from fibromyalgia, told Judge Comerford that she and her husband drove old cars, that they weren’t going on a fancy vacation, and that she probably spent the money spoiling their children.
Defense attorney Des Dockery told the court that her children had all the facilities in place and that she was determined that they would have all the facilities, including music lessons, classical singing lessons, Irish dancing and swimming lessons.
Expenses were incurred to attend Feis contests and doctor and consultant bills for her.
The court heard that she would make withdrawals of € 2,000 and € 3,000 that had no stated purpose.
“It was mainly to spoil the kids, they got the best of everything, what I thought they needed, birthdays, Christmas and expensive hobbies,” Diamond told the court.
She also told the court that she knew that one day she would be found out and said it was as if she was “obliged” to do so.
Judge Comerford said he accepted that the money was not being used to buy assets or salted.
It was a “cheated” crime.
In addition to his 11-month sentence, Diamond was ordered to post a 100-euro bond to keep the peace for two years after his release.
The judge said that she “had strayed from the path but was able to return to it.”
“When this is over, you can have a productive life.”
He said he accepted that Diamond could not make a restitution.
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