The Society of St Vincent de Paul has welcomed the decision of Tony Taylor to plead guilty to fraud. It has also commended the Garda S∅ochβna for its success in bringing Taylor to justice.

When Taylor absconded in 1996 the society discovered that £185,000 it had invested with him was missing. It was the first of Taylor's victims to make a complaint to the garda∅.

Taylor plea-bargained during the past week to have charges against him of taking money belonging to the Society of St Vincent de Paul dropped.

In return for the dropping of these and a number of other charges, he pleaded guilty to five counts. One party involved speculated that his five-year sentence would have been increased to six if defrauding a charity had been among his convictions.

Fidelity Investments, for whom the Taylor group was an agent, has as a gesture of goodwill given the society £152,000 to help compensate it for its losses.

"Further generous financial support from other parties and the public more than compensated for the outstanding £33,000," the society said in a statement.

The funds invested with Taylor were part of a bequest given to the society solely for the use of its Sunshine Fund. Sunshine House is a holiday centre in north Dublin which provides more than 2,000 holidays annually to underprivileged children.

The money was part of a £500,000 bequest for use by the holiday centre and invested in the Taylor group in 1991. It was handled personally by Taylor.

One source said yesterday that when Taylor was asked for information about the investment, he threatened to impose charges which he'd said he had not imposed for five years because the society was a charity.

After Taylor absconded in 1996, the society learned from the Garda S∅ochβna that charges had in fact been imposed.

In a statement yesterday the society said the gesture from Fidelity and the donations from individuals had ensured that no children suffered any loss of holidays as a result of Taylor's actions.