Ex-registrar admits €20k theft in ‘graves for sale’ case

A FORMER graveyard registrar has pleaded guilty to the theft and larceny of over €20,000 from Clare County Council in a “graves for sale” case.

Tue, 10 Jan, 2012 - 00:00

Gordon Deegan

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Seán Leamy, aged 60, of Main St, Tulla, Co Clare, pleaded guilty to 49 counts concerning the theft and larceny of €20,022 from the council concerning the sale of burial plots at Clonlea Graveyard, Kilkishen, over a 10-year period.

Leamy had previously pleaded guilty to one sample charge of stealing cash of €317 from the council at Main St, Tulla, on July 20, 1999, in connection with the same offences.

Leamy was employed by the council as graveyard registrar of Clonlea during the period in question, September 1999 to June 2009.

When initially charged with the offences, Leamy said: “I took the money, but I gave it all back again.”

Yesterday, in court, Mark Nicholas, defending, said that all of the monies had been repaid.

The 50th charge — to which Leamy also pleaded guilty — concerned him acting dishonestly, with the intention of making a gain causing loss to another, deface, conceal or falsify an official county council cash receipt book and official burial register for accounting purposes at Main St, Tulla, between June 1 and June 30, 2009.

Leamy pleaded guilty to 33 charges of theft between November 5, 2002, to April 20, 2009, concerning a total amount of €15,990, and pleaded guilty to 15 larceny charges on dates between July 20, 1999, and January 31, 2001, totalling €4,349.

The counts show that the amounts Leamy was charged with steadily increased during the 10-year period.

For the period September 1, 1999, to January 2001, Leamy faced 11 counts of the larceny of €317.50, three counts of the larceny of €158.50 and one count of €381 of Clare County Council, totalling €4,339.

Leamy pleaded to 13 charges of theft from the Council between November 2002, and July 18, 2004, ranging in amounts from €440 to €470.

The counts show that between January 2007 and April 2009, Leamy pleaded to 20 counts of €500 theft and one count of theft of €300 in October 2007.

Judge Carroll Moran remanded Leamy on continuing bail and adjourned sentencing to Ennis Circuit Court on March 26.