Woman faces charges of €75k theft at co-op

A woman is facing dozens of charges relating to the theft of amounts totalling almost €75,000 from a creamery and more charges of false accounting to cover it up.

Melissa Harte, 43, appeared yesterday before Clonakilty District Court, where Judge Marie Keane heard that when the first charge was put to her by a garda she apologised and said she has begun making repayments.

Ms Harte, of Frehanes, Rosscarbery, Co Cork, faces charges that, on a number of dates between November 2013 and December 2017, she stole various amounts of money which in total amounted to €74,812.80 from Lisavaird Co-op.

It is alleged that the amounts were mostly three-figure sums taken at different times, but with some larger amounts of more than €1,000 also taken, including eight instances between September 2016 and December 2017 that amounted to more than €10,000.

Garda John Dineen told the court he arrested the accused at 5.05pm on November 23 and cautioned her, to which Ms Harte made no reply. However, he later cautioned her again in relation to other charges and Ms Harte replied:

I apologise sincerely and deeply regret my actions. I have been making monthly repayments to Lisavaird since November 2018 and continue to pay back what I can. I have co-operated fully with Lisavaird Co-op and with the Garda investigation.

A long list of charge sheet references were read out and the judge was told that Ms Harte made no reply to those when they were put to her.

Sergeant Paul Kelly said the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed that Ms Harte go forward on either a signed plea or on indictment on 51 sample charges under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act and six charges relating to false accounting under Section 10 of the same act.

Ms Harte has been on station bail and gardaí said they had no objection to her release on bail. Her solicitor, Jenny Fitzgibbon, applied for bail and said she would not be seeking disclosure in the case.

Judge Keane released Ms Harte on continuing bail to appear in court on January 7, by which time it is expected she will be served with a book of evidence.