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.

Det Garda Alan McCarthy said the accused woman’s modus operandi was to tell customers they had accumulated entitlements of one less than the number to which they were entitled. She would then pocket the extra payment.

In this way, she stole €42,000 at the GPO on Oliver Plunkett St, Cork, and a further €18,000 at the post office on Bridge St, Clonakilty.

The injured parties were unaware their entitlements had been stolen. They were refunded by An Post as soon as underpaymentswere detected in the audit.

Gareth Fleming, defence barrister, said the accused suffered from depression and had been to counselling. All €60,000 of the money she stole was paid back.

Judge David Riordan said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that in all the circumstances of the case a suspended prison term of two and a half years should be imposed. He said the only aggravating factor was the fact pensioners were the ones whose money had been taken in many of the offences. Mitigating factors included her own psychological issues, the judge said.