A young student who was working in a vet’s practice stole more than €4,000 on 77 different occasions.
Money was taken from till on 77 different occasions.
Conor Byrne managed to by-pass the till system at the Animal Hospital in Lurgybrack, Letterkenny, Co Donegal between May, 2009 and December 2010.
Byrne, 23, was ‘editing transactions’ so it appeared that the takings at the practise was never out.
However, after a period of time the owner of the practice Gerard Roarty noticed that the profit margin was dropping.
He alerted Gardai who carried out a full investigation into the case.
Garda Greg Regan said he contacted VetSCOPE who operated the tilling system at the hospital and Byrne, of Drumdoit, Castlefin, was interviewed.
He made a full admission when confronted about the thefts which amounted to €4,064.48.
Letterkenny District Court heard from Byrne’s solicitor Pat Fahey that his client had suffered a brain tumour and was hard of hearing.
He said that greed had got the better of him and the more he got away with the thefts, the more he carried out.
He said he was now a student at Sheffield University studying Radiotherapy and one of the reasons for that choice of subject was because he had suffered a tumour.
Mr Fahey asked Judge Paul Kelly not to do anything that would interfere with Byrne’s study saying he had no previous convictions and that his family had never been in trouble before.
“I know it is a tall request but can I ask that it may be dealt with by way of a charitable donation,” said Mr Fahey.
He also said his client had a cheque in court to pay for all the cash he had stolen from the Animal Hospital.
However, Judge Paul Kelly pointed to the fact of the large number of actual thefts and the period of time in which the cash was stolen.
“That’s a difficult proposition,” said Judge Kelly.
He asked for a probation report to be carried out on Byrne and released him on his own bail of €500 until a month’s time.