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A woman who stole more than € 20,000 from her company’s social club and the company’s credit card spent the money on luxury vacations and shopping trips, a Dublin court has heard.
Nicola Henry (32) was a secretary at the Johnson & Johnson social club when she wrote 37 checks to herself, forging the signatures of her colleagues.
She received a total of € 17,326 from 27 of these checks, which she spent on luxury vacations in Australia, Sri Lanka and Dubai, as well as restaurants, shopping trips and beauty treatments, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard on Monday. . The other 10 checks bounced because there was not enough money in the account.
Henry, an office manager for the Tallaght-based company, was suspended when the thefts came to light. He then went on to spend another 3,233 euros on the company’s credit card, Garda Detective Kevin Bowen told the court.
After being charged, Henry “buried her head in the sand” and missed several court appearances, leading to her arrest warrants being issued, the defense attorney said. She was arrested last month and taken into custody.
Henry, of Carrownegh, Kiltoom, Co Roscommon, pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery and two counts of attempted robbery from the Johnson & Johnson social club and the company between April 2014 and September 2015. He also pleaded guilty to two counts manufacture of a fake instrument between those dates.
A further 65 indictment charges were considered. Henry has no prior convictions. It will be sentenced in March of next year.
Det Gda Bowen told Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, that Henry joined the company in 2011 as an account assistant and went on to have several different roles within the company, including office manager. She joined the company’s social club in 2012 and became the club’s secretary.
The court heard that employees who were members of the social club paid a contribution from their salaries each month for social gatherings, and the company also added funds regularly.
Although Henry was on the club committee and had a check book, he was not authorized to sign checks on behalf of the club. As a result, she forged the signatures of two of her colleagues who were authorized to do so and cashed checks that she wrote herself.
Ten of the 37 checks, with a value of € 35,340, bounced because there was not enough money in the account. Henry’s infringement came to light when the bank contacted the company’s controller about bad checks in August 2015.
She was immediately suspended and her business credit card was blocked. However, the company noticed in November of that year that more sums of money had been spent using the blocked card.
It was learned that the bank had contacted Henry about blocking the card and she authorized them to unlock it before continuing to spend the company money, the court heard.
Det Gda Bowen said that Henry did not spend money on “daily expenses.” “They were all luxury items,” he said.
In addition to the holidays, the court heard that Henry spent money on restaurants, hair salons, nail treatments and a shopping trip to Northern Ireland.
Defense attorney Kieran Kelly BL said his client had a normal upbringing, a good upbringing, and came from a good family. The court heard that her mother became ill with cancer when she was a teenager and Henry assumed a caring role in the home. He suffered from depression following the death of his mother in 2008.
Kelly said her client, who cried during the sentencing hearing, was extremely sorry for her actions.
He said she had assumed various accounting roles since the incident, but was fired when her crime at Johnson & Johnson came to light. He was unable to return the money he stole, he said.
Kelly said her client is a “very private person” who would benefit from a psychological report and a report from Probation Services.
“She has buried her head in the sand a lot regarding this matter,” he said. “She is a person who must go ahead with the counseling available to her.”
Judge Pauline Codd ordered the reports and deferred the matter for completion on March 8 of the next year. He left Henry in custody until then.
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