Post worker stole €103k from savers

A “trusted” An Post worker pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing over €100,000 in funds from account holders, before putting the money back into their accounts.

Mary Patricia Kerin, of Vernon Crescent, Westbury, Co Clare, was charged with 86 counts of theft and forgery totalling €103,000.

The State accepted Kerin’s guilty plea to over a dozen sample charges.

Presiding judge Tom O’Donnell described the case as “extremely disturbing” after hearing money had been stolen from “vulnerable” customers.

Kerin, 53, was a respected senior member of staff working at the GPO, Cecil St, Limerick, when she physically stole over €20,000 from post office savings accounts customers, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court was told.

The court heard she also made a series of unlawful transactions of funds totalling over €80,000 before putting the money back within days of withdrawing it.

Gardaí told the court that, in a bizarre twist, aside from the €20,000 which was “physically stolen”, they could not find any evidence to show Kerin had used any of the other funds for her own gain. All of the monies stolen has been repaid.

State prosecutor John O’Sullivan said Kerin “had interfered with the accounts of highly vulnerable people, in terms of their age and illnesses”.

The crimes were traced back to the defendant after she carried out the transactions using her staff user ID.

In one case, she stole €18,300 from a woman in her eighties who was using her funds to pay for her nursing home care.

Kerin also stole funds from another woman who was “house-bound, and who had Alzheimer’s disease”.

In another case, she stole thousands of euro from a woman who managed an account to pay for her son’s special needs care.

She also made a series of withdrawals from the account of an elderly couple who were using the money as a pension fund.

“She knew the account holders and she knew their vulnerabilities,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

Kerin said she believed she carried out the fraudulent transactions, which she also forged, because she had not been promoted at work.

Her barrister, Pat Barriscale, said her conduct was “deceiving” but “irrational”.

“She worked for 32 years for An Post,” Mr Barriscale said. “She went straight there from school. She was well-regarded by her customers and staff. She’s lost all of that now.”

Judge O’Donnell remanded Kerin on bail for sentence on October 1.