Bank Employee Avoids Jail Time After Stealing €100k and Gambling it Away

Bank worker from Ireland receives suspended sentence after stealing €100k to fund gambling habit.

Conor Egan, a bank worker from Ireland, has managed to avoid jail time despite stealing €100,000 from an Allied Irish Banks (AIB) branch in Kildare where he was employed.

The 27-year-old stole the money from his employers on numerous occasions and then used it to fund his gambling habit, going almost a year without getting caught.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court somewhat surprisingly sentenced the young banker to four years suspended in full for four years, after his father had agreed to repay the money.

Banker’s Father to Repay the Money

Egan’s father, who is a retired Colonel, has agreed to use his retirement package and repay the money owed by his son, who would eventually pay him back.

Judge Patricia Ryan was pleased with the fact that the banker confessed to the crime immediately after he had been confronted and took notice of his previous good behaviour and efforts to make things right by paying the money back.

Egan was stealing amounts between €100 and €1,000 between January and November 2010 before transferring it to the Bank of Ireland account that he would later use to place online wagers.

The banker also placed bets in retail shops and spent almost the entire amount of stolen cash on gambling in various land-based and online gaming establishments.

His colleague eventually noticed the missing money and confronted him about it, but Egan said it could be in the safe after he had already brought the key to the safe with him.

He also counter-fitted documents in an attempt to hide the thefts and refused to take a leave so as to avoid his replacement revealing the stolen money.

The missing money was finally confirmed in January 2011 by the AIB auditors, leading Egan to immediately confess the crime. He signed a confession right away, which also proved another mitigating circumstance that helped him avoid jail time.

After being fired by the AIB, Egan completed a degree in NUI Maynooth and found a new full-time job. The former banker is still receiving help to cope with his gambling habit and he reportedly hasn’t placed a wager since 2010.