Hunt on for ‘Grinch’ who stole Christmas

GARDAÍ are looking for a Limerick man in connection with a Christmas club €24,000 fund which has gone missing.

Dry cleaner worker Ron McKnight yesterday described how a colleague who had collected thousands for a bumper end of year fund, had gone missing.

The Christmas Club in Limerick had started in January and between 10 and 20 people are believed to have invested money which was expected to gain interest in a single Credit Union account.

The Christmas Club fundraiser, who yesterday was nicknamed on air as the Grinch, has now skipped the country, it was alleged yesterday.

Mr McKnight added:

“I know we might have been a bit slow. It started to click, surely he couldn’t have done this to our work friends, our work colleagues.

“Our worst fears started to come true. We know for a fact that he has skipped the country, because the guards told us.”

“This is a warning to people.

“We made the mistake that when we opened that Christmas Club, we should have got two signatures on it.”

“We’re disgusted that he’d do it to people so close. He wasn’t a drinker, he wasn’t a drug addict. We don’t know where the money’s gone,” Mr McKnight told RTÉ’s Liveline.

Local business employees and dry cleaner workers in Limerick approached the Credit Union, where the money was believed to have been deposited.

The manager of the union failed to respond to calls yesterday.

Those caught up in the Christmas Club were “gutted” and one man had even invested €7,000, alleged Mr McKnight.

One disabled man who had invested in the get-rich scheme had also put in another €3,800.

The club fundraiser was due to distribute the Christmas windfall to Limerick locals early in the week and workers became suspicious as the young man had disappeared.

Gardaí at Roxboro station in Limerick yesterday confirmed they were looking to speak to a man in his 20s in connection with a withdrawal of €24,000 from a Credit Union. A source said up to 20 people may have contributed towards the club.