A FORMER Mayo County Council employee who defrauded the local authority over a six-year period was given a four-year suspended jail sentence yesterday.
Father-of-two Tom Gilboy of Mount Gregory, Castlebar, pleaded guilty to 117 charges of defrauding the council of €43,225.66 on certain dates from 2002 until 2008.
He was charged under sections 4 and 25 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
Det Garda Ed McLoughlin said at a sitting of Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court that the accused had forged the signatures of five council employees on 64 separate claim sheets and had also falsely claimed travel expenses.
Judge Tony Hunt was told Gilboy worked as an estimator in the architects office.
Counsel for the prosecution James Dwyer said the fraud came to light after Geeta Keena, a senior architect and line manager, conducted a review of expenses and noticed some anomalies.
This drew attention to the fact that 95 per cent of Gilboy’s work was office-based. She arranged a meeting with the accused on December 14th, 2009, when he immediately acknowledged his wrongdoing.
After the majority of his expense sheets were recovered he identified which trips had been made and which claims were forged.
It also emerged that while recovering Gilboy’s diaries from his desk, shredded papers were discovered showing his practice copies of false signatures.
The court was told Gilboy said he started defrauding the council because his wife was upset over a personal matter and he wanted to cheer her up. He also conceded he was living beyond his means.
It emerged that he only stopped the fraud after the council introduced a new structure, which involved two signatories on expense sheets.
The council reported the matter to gardaí on December 27th, 2009, and he was dismissed in late January 2010.
Det Garda McLoughlin, who arrested Gilboy at his home on March 20th, 2010, said he knew the accused and his actions were “totally out of character”.
Defence counsel Francis Comerford said his client was now unemployed and looked after his 95-year-old father and his mountain sheep farm while his wife was the sole breadwinner in the family. The couple have two children aged 15 and six.
He said his client had since made a full repayment of the money to Mayo County Council.
The judge observed that this was a significant mitigating factor and noted that, from anecdotal evidence in the media, there were much bigger fish who had not made such restitution. He remarked that such offenders were not as frank or forthcoming.
The judge said Gilboy had got away with his fraud for a long period and “he no doubt hoped the lack of vigilance would continue” but that his “abuse of trust” had brought odium and punishment on his wife and children.
The judge imposed a four-year suspended jail sentence and, subject to his suitability, a community service order.