Hotel cashier stole €76k and fled the country

A South African woman trusted to work as a cashier at the Midleton Park Hotel made off with €76,000, and after being questioned by gardaí, she fled to Australia and had to be extradited back to Ireland to face yesterday’s case against her.

Det Sgt Seán Leahy said Lorna Van Pletzen, aged 41, who was living at Ballinascartha, Midleton, Co Cork, with her husband and two children, realised her crimes had been detected when the hotel accountant emailed her querying lodgements she was supposed to have made to the hotel bank account.

She drove to Belfast, abandoned her car, and travelled as a foot passenger to Scotland and on to Milton Keynes, England.