Men set up rival fish business after stealing from employer

TWO men, who worked with a major fish retailer for more than 20 years, set up a nearby rival business with the help of money they stole from their former employer, a court heard yesterday.

Dermot Fitzgerald, aged 48, of Cluain Dara, Clonmacken, Limerick and Seamus Mahon, aged 50, of Griffith Avenue, Ballinacurra-Weston pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to stealing more than €3,000 between May 23 and June 18, 2009.

The men were caught on hidden cameras pocketing sums of cash handed over by customers at Rene Cusack’s fish retail outlet.

Detective Sergeant Alan Cullen told the court that Rene Cusack accountant, John Sheehan, became concerned about financial irregularities and the company installed a covert CCTV system on the premises.

Fitzgerald and Mahon were each charged with seven counts of theft after the cameras caught them pocketing sums of between €20 and €450.

Both men worked for Rene Cusack for 20 years or more.

Judge Carroll Moran was told the pair opened a rival fish shop in the city within six weeks of their dismissal.

John O’Sullivan, prosecuting, said the owner of Rene Cusack’s felt extremely aggrieved at what had happened, but was not somebody who wanted “blood”.

Judge Moran noted that the defendants had even lodged a case for unfair dismissal after they were dismissed. He said they were otherwise men of good character and had paid full restitution of the money.

They had also suffered a degree of punishment, he said, in losing their good jobs and had the stigma of a criminal case being taken against them.

He acceded to the submissions of defence counsels, Brian McInerney and Michael Collins, and applied the probation act and bound Mahon and Fitzgerald to the peace for three years.