Derry-Londonderry woman admits £590k fraud

By Q Radio News

Derry Crown Court heard today how a local woman won almost £400,000 on one day gambling but list it all within 48 hours.

The court was also told that a local hi tech company, whose customer base includes Intel and Seagate, almost went to the wall after it's office manager plundered the company's credit card accounts to the tune of just under £600,000, over a sixteen month period starting in January 2016, to fund her addiction to on-line gambling.

As a result of the financial loss the company's three shareholders had to re-mortgage their homes to prevent their company from going under.

Before the court at her plea and sentencing hearing was Tracey Curran, 44, from Moyola Drive in the Shantallow area of Derry.

She pleaded guilty to six charges of unlawfully taking the money from the Bank of Ireland and American Express credit card accounts belonging to her employer, S3 Alliance, which is based at the Skeoge Industrial Estate.

She gambled and lost all of the money on the 32 Red gambling website.

On one day alone she won £399,000 but within forty-eight hours she had lost it all on gambling.

A barrister for the Public Prosecution Service told Judge Philip Babington that Curran was a company employee since the company was founded in 2008.

She'd been hired by one of the shareholders who'd worked with her at another company. Curran was in charge of the company's administration  and had the passwords for and access to the company's credit card accounts.

The prosecutor said the offending was discovered when Curran was asked by her employers to prepare financial reports with a view to switching bank accounts.

At that time the shareholders became aware of requests from some of their suppliers about outstanding payments.

On April 24, 2017, Curran left work early and emailed her employers asking to meet them.

Two of the shareholders went to her home where, in the presence of her parents, she said she had taken between £300,000 and £400,000 from their accounts.

She said she had transferred the money into her Pay Pal account which she used to gamble on-line.

The shareholders reported the matter to the police and had a full audit of their accounts carried out.

The audit showed that the total amount of the fraud was £592,915.44.

Curran resigned from the company on April 28, 2017, the day the audit started.

Two months later she was arrested by the police and made full and frank admissions.

The barrister said following negotiations between 32 Red and S3 Alliance, which involved pressure being applied, the gambling company reimbursed the victims to the tune of £589,500.

He said the offending had financial, reputational and personal consequences for the three shareholders, all of whom had to re-mortgage their homes to keep the company afloat.

He said thankfully the company survived and the shareholders have come through their ordeal reasonably well.

Defence barrister Kieran Mallon Q.C. said he accepted the near financial collapse and the reputational damage Curran had caused.

Not only was Curran a trusted employee but also a family friend who had attended family weddings and other social events with her employers.

After she resigned Curran wrote to the three shareholders - "I am so sorry I hurt you all, your trust and our friendship".

Mr. Mallon said the problem of gambling addiction was that unlike drugs or alcohol addictions there were no visible signs of it.

He said it was in her bedroom in her parent's home where Curran "set up the online account out of boredom and became addicted to it".

The barrister said that Curran, who has been diagnosed as a pathological gambler with addiction to and an intense urge to gamble, contacted 32 Red raising her gambling concerns with them but they responded by giving her a loyalty card and by giving her an enhanced membership status.
Mr. Mallon said Curran had gained nothing financially from her gambling addiction. He said the only benefit she gained was the thrill of her addiction to gambling.

He said 32 Red's decision "to make good her criminality in January 2018 by reimbursing her former employers was unique and exceptional, for whatever reason" as the result of which the financial loss to the company was now about £4,000.

The defence barrister said after she resigned from S3 Alliance in April 2017, Curran was employed by another local company eight months later as an administrative assistant.

"Her current employer is fully aware of her offences but says while not all people are capable of reform, she continues to show she is a reformed person", Mr. Mallon said.

Judge Babington said it was a very serious case and said he would sentence Curran on January 10 and he released her on continuing bail until then.