Gardaí investigate lone employee in alleged credit union fraud

Gardaí have confirmed that an investigation was initiated at the Limerick and District Credit Union following an alleged incident last summer.

A solitary staff member is believed to be at the centre of a Garda investigation into a fraud involving hundreds of thousands of euro at a Limerick credit union.

Gardaí have confirmed that an investigation was initiated at the Limerick and District Credit Union following an alleged incident last summer.

“Gardaí have received a report of an alleged incident of fraud at a financial institution in Limerick on June 14, 2024,” a spokesperson said.

“The investigation is ongoing.”

The investigation is understood to relate to the alleged actions of a specific staff member.

Confirming the issue, Caroline Long, the institution’s chief executive for more than 20 years, said that the credit union’s members’ savings “were unaffected”.

“When, in 2024, the credit union became aware of a financial irregularity, we immediately contacted the regulatory authorities, a full independent review was carried out, and a report made to An Garda Síochána,” Ms Long said.

“The credit union is insured to deal with matters of this nature,” she said.

Limerick and District Credit Union has a membership of more than 41,000, and boasted assets in terms of its members’ deposits of more than €167m at the end of the 2023 financial year.

Reports regarding an investigation into one of Limerick’s credit unions first appeared in the Limerick Leader, with two other institutions — the Unity and Affinity credit unions — subsequently posting updates to their own membership informing them they were not the entity in question.

The Irish League of Credit Unions declined to comment on the matter, with a spokesperson saying that “as a matter of policy, the ILCU does not comment on individual credit unions”.

Local Labour TD Conor Sheehan said he had first become aware of the matter when his own credit union informed him that they were not the subject of the investigation. He described the revelations as “shocking”.

“I suppose what’s shocking is that we always trust the credit union, trust it to be the most honest financial institution there is,” he said.

“There are lots of older people, more vulnerable people who will be affected by something like this.

“I’ve elderly relatives that keep money in that credit union, and they would never have expected this kind of thing.”

Credit unions are not-for-profit bodies operating in local companies whose — typically small-scale and shorter-term as opposed to mortgages — loans are funded primarily via their members’ deposits.

There are more than 200 such institutions operating in Ireland, many with multiple branches.

Limerick and District Credit Union operates out of four branches.

There have been a number of high-profile scandals in the industry in recent years, leading to a clampdown in terms of governance controls by the Central Bank.

In late 2023, the former manager of Rush Credit Union in north Co Dublin was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to stealing €875,000 from the business over the space of seven years.