Embezzling post office manager sent to jail

Our readers will recall the story of an Irish post office manager, Tony O’Reilly, who over a 14 month period in 2010-2011 plundered the funds under his care in order to feed an increasingly voracious appetite for gambling.

This week O’Reilly paid for his dishonesty in embezzling Euro 1.75 million with a four year jail sentence and the loss of his job.

The Irish Independent newspaper reports that O’Reilly was sentenced in the Wexford Circuit Court by Judge Pauline Codd, after evidence was led that he used a variety of criminal ploys to misappropriate large sums of money in his charge.

O’Reilly had previously admitted to six counts of theft at the Gorey Post Office where he worked. He also admitted six charges of falsifying An Post lodgement dockets for accounting purposes between December 6, 2010, and June 29, 2011.

The court heard that O’Reilly had since given up gambling completely, had attended courses at addiction centres and now wished to become an addiction counsellor.

Judge Codd said O’Reilly’s behaviour had the pattern of somebody out of control. She said he had engaged in a serious breach of trust over a significant period of time and his theft was deliberate and systematic.

She also noted that he had disappeared for 11 days after the theft was discovered.

The judge sentenced O’Reilly to four years in prison but suspended the final year on condition that when he comes out of prison he attends further counselling.

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