Post office worker who stole €60k from welfare recipients avoids jail

A former post office worker at the GPO in Cork City stole €42,000 from pensioners and others and pocketed a further €18,000 in a similar way while working at Clonakilty post office.

Michelle Hennessy, aged 44, The Stables, Western Rd, Clonakilty, pleaded guilty to sample counts related to thefts of pensions and other welfare payments from 2009 to late in 2013.

A pensioner who had been told by Hennessy she had only accumulated four instead of five weekly pension payments on a particular day made a complaint to An Post and an internal audit was carried out. Gardaí were later notified.