A woman who picked up an envelope containing €5,000 in cash belonging to a garda outside Clonakilty Garda Station has been convicted of theft, while her father was given the Probation Act.
Elizabeth Foley (29) of Templebryan South, Clonakilty pleaded guilty at Clonakilty District Court to the theft of cash and the possession of cannabis, while a charge of money laundering was withdrawn by the State.
Jeremiah Foley of the same address pleaded not guilty to one charge of money laundering.
Gda Jonathan O’Donovan said he had the cash on April 27th 2024 to pay a builder for work that he had carried out for him and didn’t realise it was missing until the following day.
He said he and his colleague searched the station for the envelope but were unable to find it.
CCTV was later examined at the station and Gda O’Donovan said he could see Elizabeth Foley walking into the station to sign on as part of her bail conditions.
‘I could see her going in but then she comes out with the white envelope in her hand when she had nothing on her going in. She put the envelope in her pocket and ran away and got into her father’s car,’ said Gda O’Donovan.
The court heard that gardaí obtained a search warrant for the Foley home on April 30th where they found a small quantity of cannabis valued at €20 belonging to Elizabeth Foley.
They also found two bank lodgement slips for Bank of Ireland which showed that both accused each lodged €1,850 into their bank accounts on April 29th.
Judge Carroll was told that Elizabeth Foley and her father both agreed to pay the stolen money back with the final payments being made on December 31st 2024.
Ms Foley has 38 previous convictions including 10 for theft with the theft of the cash which Judge Carroll described as ‘entirely opportunistic’.
‘If you find €5,000 in cash you are still obliged to hand it in and if it wasn’t paid back you would have been going to prison,’ said the Judge who requested a probation report on the accused and remanded her on continuing bail to September 16th.
Jeremiah Foley, who has seven previous convictions, denied a charge of money laundering and maintained that the money he lodged into his bank account on April 29th 2024 was from selling cars and scrap.
Judge Carroll said that there is no doubt that he knew the money given to him by Elizabeth was from the proceeds of crime.
Counsel requested the charge be struck out and Judge Carroll applied the probation act in his case.
