Woman who stole from Offaly charity must repay €37,000 to avoid jail

Judge calls for internet gambling ban as Circuit Court hears shop employee who stole money in Clara over 19-month period was addicted to online bingo

Published 10th Jul 2026, 16:00 BST Woman working at charity shop did not lodge takings for 19 months | Tribune Pictures Judge calls for internet gambling ban as Circuit Court hears shop employee who stole money in Clara over 19-month period was addicted to online bingo Sign up to our Offaly Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Offaly Live within your account.

A GAMBLING addict who stole over €37,000 from the Offaly charity shop where she worked must repay the money or face a jail sentence of up to five years.

Tullamore Circuit Court was told that Aulwin Dunne (48), Marian Place, Tullamore was a supervisor at the Power4Good shop in Clara when she stole €37,705.83 over a 19-month period by not lodging takings in a bank.

The Circuit Court heard the mother of two had been working for the charity since 2016 and Power4Good became aware of a discrepancy in the accounts when it conducted an audit.

Judge Keenan Johnson was told Ms Dunne had become addicted to online gambling and used the money she took from the shop to supplement her wages when she built up a debt.

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The judge found no fault with the charity, which supports autistic children in Offaly and Westmeath and special needs children in Zambia , saying it was clear Power4Good had proper governance in place and discovered the offending relatively quickly.

“It obviously came as a huge shock to the directors of the charity, given the level of trust they had placed in the accused,” said Judge Johnson.

Prosecution counsel Shane Geraghty said witness statements had been provided by two directors of the charity, Brian Sheridan and Molly Buckley.

Molly Buckley was president and chair of the charity and Ms Dunne had admitted her culpability to her first, both verbally and in writing.

In January Ms Dunne pleaded guilty to a single charge of stealing €37,705.83 at Power4Good, River Street, Clara on dates between April 1, 2023 and October 31, 2024.

Ms Dunne was remanded on bail for probation and welfare reports and the sentencing hearing took place last month.

Detective Garda Alan Burke told the hearing that Power4Good had shops in Tullamore and Clara which sold second hand goods to raise funds for the charity.

One of Ms Dunne's responsibilities was to lodge the takings from the Clara shop at the end of each month and she failed to do so that from April 2023 to October 2024.

An initial audit discovered an approximate discrepancy of €17,000 between what was taken in and what was lodged and a further audit discovered the total was €37,000.

Detective Garda Burke said: “At that stage knowing that an audit would be conducted Ms Dunne came forward to her supervisors and admitted she had taken the money and stated that she suffered from a severe gambling habit.”

The garda detailed that Lorraine Corcoran, a manager with Power4Good asked Ms Dunne to bring her the paperwork from the Clara shop and when she saw there had been no lodgements for a period she “was hoping she had made a mistake and that was not the case”.

However, Ms Dunne told Ms Corcoran she used the Clara shop takings to supplement her gambling habit.

It appeared she had been using her wages to gamble and used the takings from the shop to pay bills and rent.

The amounts taken per month varied with the highest in any single month being €2,362 in November 2023.

In 2023 the woman stole over €17,000 and the following year over €20,000 was taken.

Detective Garda Burke said Ms Dunne had written a letter to the charity in which she promised “faithfully” to pay the money back. “I can't stress how sorry I am that this happened,” she wrote.

The woman had started work there through a community employment scheme and when she admitted the theft to Ms Buckley she did not quibble with the amount.

Judge Keenan Johnson given details of offending by 48-year-old woman at Tullamore Circuit Court | Tribune Pictures Cross-examined by defence counsel David Nugent , BL (instructed by Aisling Maloney, solicitor), Detective Garda Burke said he believed the accused had been to see a therapist after admitting what she had done and at the end of a garda interview she said: “I never meant for this to happen. They [Power4Good] were my life for nine years.”

Mr Nugent said the probation report which had been prepared was quite positive and he said he also submitted a report on online gambling and the risks involved in it.

Judge Johnson said he knew gambling is like any addiction. “I know she continued to gamble in the false belief that she would recover the money,” said the judge.

Mr Nugent said Ms Dunne's relationship with her partner had suffered because of her gambling and her “hiding of it”.

Defence counsel said in early 2023 she became aware of ads for online casinos and her gambling habit was restricted solely to online bingo.

Mr Nugent said his client recalled when she first felt the “rush” when she won €800 with a one euro gamble and “transformed” her house by buying flooring and carpets.

It was very easy for her to gamble and she would go outside of the shop to do so: “She'd use her phone and get her quick dopamine fix.”

She would also be on her phone at night. “One spin, two spins, three spins, money draining down,” said Mr Nugent.

She then found herself in deficit and in her mind she viewed the money from the shop as a loan and now suffered great shame and had great remorse.

She had destroyed her reputation and she knew that the money had to be repaid. Mr Nugent added: “The Charities Act puts an onus on the charity to get that money back. They can't just write it off.”

He said she was currently not working and was on social welfare but had been putting money aside, amounting to a couple of hundred euros which was not enough.

“As soon as she gets work she will be able to repay far more money,” he said.

Judge Johnson said the matter had been discovered 18 months earlier and in a letter written the year she admitted her offending she made a promise to pay it “by the end of November”.

“I'd have expected a far bigger sum of money,” said the judge.

Mr Nugent said Ms Dunne had suffered from shame and panicked. He repeated that she needed to repay the money and detailed that she was receiving €325 in social welfare, and had to pay €73 in rent and €20 to the Credit Union. Her partner was working.

He said there was a plan to pay an initial €5,000 by the time of the Circuit Court sessions in November this year and a further €5,000 by the June 2027 sessions.

She would also be making a plan to come up with the balance. “She didn't want to come to the court with something that was unrealistic,” said Mr Nugent.

He asked the judge when he was considering his sentence to allow Ms Dunne to make good on her promise to repay all the money.

Judge Johnson responded: “That's going to take eight years on that basis. That's far too long.”

Mr Geraghty said the maximum prison sentence for the offence was 10 years.

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Judge Johnson said Ms Dunne had been given a position of trust by a charity which had very worthy causes and then committed a serious offence involving a gross breach of trust but the harm done could be undone by restitution.

Stealing such a large sum of money from a charity and doing enormous damage to the charity was an aggravating factor in sentencing.

He said he hoped the charity would be able to continue its good work and not suffer the “ill effects” of bad publicity which the offence would attract, adding that only Ms Dunne, and “absolutely nobody else” was culpable.

Mitigating factors in sentencing included her plea of guilty her co-operation with the investigation, her remorse and her previous good work history. She had no previous convictions.

He said she clearly had a serious gambling addiction when she incurred the debts and she stole money to repay those gambling debts and continued to gamble.

“That's the nature of gambling. It's a vicious cycle,” he said.

“It's designed to encourage people by giving them a small win initially and then pulling them in deeper and deeper into the addiction.”

He said the effects were exponential now that people could gamble on the internet and it was far too easy for people to become addicted when they were on online sites.

“I'm firmly of the view gambling should not be allowed on the internet. It's an absolutely corrosive situation it creates for people.”

The judge said Ms Dunne was fortunate she had good support from her family and the probation report said she was at low risk of reoffending.

He described Ms Dunne's offending as “mid range” and set the headline sentence at seven years, reducing that to five years after mitigation.

He said he would defer finalisation of the matter because full restitution would have to be made to the charity if the sentence was to be suspended.

“But if there is not a feasible and viable repayment plan put in place the court will have no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence,” he said.

Restitution had to be to the forefront of sentencing and the court would have to have concrete, feasible proposals by November 17.

“At the moment I'm totally unimpressed with the efforts that have been made,” said the judge.