Man jailed for stealing €50k from employer

A Chinese man who stole over €50,000 from his employer over a three-year period has been jailed for three years.

Shiwei Xia (aged 34) of Sauls Court, Cows Lane pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to eight counts of theft to the value of €52,442 from Digizone Phone Shop, Lucan Shopping Centre between January 1, 2007 and November 30, 2009

Defence counsel Ronan Kennedy BL told Judge Martin Nolan that Xia was a trusted employee of Digizone owner Mr Trevor Robinson for almost eight years

The court heard Xia would steal approximately the value of one phone per day by entering a cash payment as a Visa card payment.

Detective Garda Noel Maher said that the business had two accounts, one being for cash payments and the other for Visa payments.

Det Gda Maher said Xia was able to get away with the fraud for so long as the Visa account was not checked as regularly as the cash one.

Judge Nolan said Xia had betrayed his employer’s trust and caused him significant hardship. He sentenced him one year on three counts to run consecutively.