Ex-director of Hep C group, Positive Action, faces sentence

A former director of the hepatitis C support group Positive Action is due in court today for sentencing in connection with alleged theft and fraud from the organisation.

Bernadette Warnock, aged 62, of Smithstown Lodge, Garretstown, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, appeared before Dublin District Court last May charged with 28 counts connected to fraudulent cheques and 48 charges of theft on dates between 2009 and 2011.

Ms Warnock resigned as a director of the Positive Action board in July 2013.

A Garda investigation into an alleged fraud at Positive Action began in September 2013. It established that a six-figure sum of money disappeared over a lengthy period of time. Ms Warnock was the only suspect and co-operated fully with the investigation.

Positive Action was liquidated in May 2014 with debts of €107,000, two months after the HSE pulled funding amid concerns of “inappropriate and extravagant” use of public funds and “significant deficits” in the governance of the group.

The group had received €7.7m in State funding since its inception in 1994 when it was set up to support women infected by contaminated blood products after they gave birth. The directors were unpaid volunteers.

However, an internal audit by the HSE found that in 2009-13, expenses including travel came to over €250,000; €86,781 was spent on dining and purchases of groceries; and more than €100,000 was spent on complementary therapies, including angel healing, angel card readings, reflexology, crystal healing, ear candling, and emotional freedom techniques.

The spending included overseas conferences. The internal audit found most of these were targeted at highly specialised clinicians. Some spouses accompanied directors, and sometimes extended their stay afterwards.

The internal audit could not find evidence that all spouses reimbursed their costs.

According to the audit report, the organisation had non-existent controls over the expenditure of public funds, there was significant extravagance, irregularities, and resistance by directors to being accountable.

It also found that the external auditor of Positive Action had prepared the accounts without visiting the organisation’s offices or seeing supporting documentation.

More than 1,000 women were given contaminated anti-D by the Blood Transfusion Service Board between 1970 and 1994. It was given to mothers whose blood group differed to their babies to prevent potentially fatal haemolytic disease in the foetus in future pregnancies.