A DODGY music teacher who duped five families into believing their children were sitting piano exams has walked free from court with a two-year probation order.
Claire Thompson (25) was warned that any breach would see her re-sentenced. District Judge Rosemary Watters told the single mum she had "never dealt" with a fraud like hers before but that nevertheless it was serious given the "breach of trust" and that it "involved children and their families who were distressed".
A prosecution lawyer had told Lisburn Magistrates Court how police began investigating Thompson in November 2011 when some parents said the exams their children had sat "were not legitimate".
They told police how although Thompson had been teaching their children how to play the piano and other instruments over the previous two years, exams apparently registered with the London College of Music were fake.
The lawyer said police investigations revealed that the college "did not have any record of them entering the exams or of the defendant being one of their affiliates" and that other families had also been duped by Thompson.
"Lessons were provided, exams paid for and certificates produced," the lawyer said,
"but in the investigation the exams and certificates were found to be bogus."
Thompson, of old Hillsborough Road in Lisburn, was questioned but tried to shift the blame onto a supposedly new course coordinator, further claiming that she could not provide any contact details for the woman.
The lawyer said that by her guilty pleas to 14 offences of fraud by false representation and two further counts of using a false instrument between January 1 2010 and November 1 2011, Thompson accepted her claims were lies and that the certificates she provided had been "doctored".
Thompson conned seven children from five families.
Peter Coiley, defending, said Thompson had instructed him to "extend her regret, embarrassment, shame and apologies to all of the families for the distressed cause".
As well as the probation program, during which Thompson must undergo a "thinking skills course", the judge ordered the fraudster to pay £50 to each of the conned families.
"I do not want ever to see you before the court again," the judge told Thompson. Outside the court Thompson refused to acknowledge the parents of one of her victims and refused to respond when asked whether she had any comment or personal apology to make.