Accountant who stole €30,000 from the golf club she worked for to be sentenced later
Sonya McLean
An accountant who stole almost €30,000 from the golf club she worked for has been remanded on bail pending sentence next March.
Cheryl Robinson (49) The Woods, Laragh Road, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to ten sample charges of theft from Foxrock Golf Club on dates between October 2018 and July 2020.
Robinson has a previous conviction for similar type offending committed against a former employer. She pleaded guilty in 2010 to 72 charges of theft, resulting in a total loss of €125,000.
She was jailed for two years by Judge Martin Nolan in July 2010 for this offence. At the time, she was using a different name of Cheryl Byrne.
Garda Padraig Nagle told Kieran Kelly BL, prosecuting, that in May 2020 staff at the golf club were unhappy with certain balances in the club’s accounts and Robinson was approached.
The staff were not happy with Robinson’s responses to the questions they asked of her and it was decided that a “full scale forensic investigation” should be carried out on the accounts, with a focus on bank reconciliation.
It was discovered that Robinson had been directing the payments for suppliers into her own bank account rather than the suppliers.
Gda Nagle agreed that the “transactions were readily identifiable”. Gardaí attended at Robinson’s home and she later came to the station but she made no admissions during subsequent garda interviews.
Gda Nagle agreed with Ronan Kennedy SC, defending, that Robinson separated in 2022 and is the sole carer for her three children who are aged between 16 and 24 years old. It was accepted that she has not come to further garda attention.
She receives no financial support from her former husband, is in arrears in her mortgage and has a credit union loan of €40,000, counsel told the court. Mr Kennedy said his client is “deeply ashamed” and acknowledges that she has “let so many people down”.
“She sincerely wishes she could turn back the clock but she clearly cannot do that,” counsel said.
He suggested that Robinson was “a woman who was vulnerable and clearly trying to do her best by her children”.
He said that the theft was always going to be uncovered. “It was just a question of when the merry-go-round was going to stop,” Mr Kennedy said.
Judge Orla Crowe said the identical previous convictions were of concern to the court and adjourned the case to March 24th, next to allow for a risk assessment to be carried out by the Probation Service.
