Accountant avoids jail for diverting €144k of company money to her own bank account

'Essentially, she went down a rabbit hole and did not stop it. She was ashamed and shocked by how much had been taken.'

The defendant has been given a three-year suspended jail sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where she pleaded guilty to a total of 43 charges arising out of the case. File picture: Larry Cummins

Tue, 03 Nov, 2026 - 20:00

Liam Heylin

A chartered accountant who began to divert payments for her employer to her personal bank account “went down a rabbit hole” with 20 such thefts amounting to over €140,000 in a four-year period, and now she has been given a three-year suspended jail sentence.

59-year-old Deborah Lynch who is formerly of Hazelwood, Kilglass, County Limerick, was sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where she pleaded guilty to a total of 43 charges arising out of the case.

Detective Garda John Murphy said Ms Lynch was a chartered accountant and handled shipping invoices for the company and because she was a senior member of staff she was trusted and the oversight of her work may not have been as forensic as it might have been for a newer member of staff.

It was not until December 2023 when there was an internal audit that there was one transaction related to July 2023 where the supporting documentation was missing.

On further scrutiny it emerged that payment had been made to an AIB account which was not related to any of the three main shipping companies used by the company. It was established that the AIB account belonged to Deborah Lynch.

At this stage it was established that there had been not one but 20 fraudulent transactions where the funds were sent to her account. The total reached €144,000 in transfers of funds to her account between April 2019 and July 2023.

Twenty of the counts against her were for theft of sums ranging from around €3,000 to over €9,000 from Change Healthcare Ireland Solutions Ltd. of Grange East, Buttevant, County Cork, on dates between April 2019 and July 2023.

The remaining 23 charges were for creating false documents to facilitate the thefts.

“On September 3, 2025, she was arrested and taken to the garda station in Fermoy for questioning. She was nothing but co-operative from the beginning. She raised €50,000 compensation and the company are quite happy that this has been put forward.

"She was genuinely remorseful for what she has done. I don’t think she is someone who is likely to come to the attention of the courts again,” Det. Garda Murphy said.

Defence barrister Paula McCarthy said: “She was completely forthcoming and explained how it happened.

Essentially, she went down a rabbit hole and did not stop it. She was ashamed and shocked by how much had been taken. She made no attempt to minimise her actions.

“They sold the family home to gather compensation and moved to Mayo. She was going through stress at the time and struggling with her own emotional state.

"She made decisions she deeply regrets. She is ashamed. She took full responsibility. She should have sought help. She decided to leave the employment before she was found out.”

Judge Sinéad Behan said that it was obvious that what Deborah Lynch did was going to be found out eventually. “Her work became un-viewed because she earned a position of trust over a long time. She abused that position of trust. There was a level of preparation and planning.

“She has no trappings of wealth or an extravagant lifestyle. She wrote a letter of apology in which she is remorseful about what occurred. I think this is an uncharacteristic situation in which she has become involved.”