A MAN who was among more than 1,000 customers who helped themselves to £1.6 million cash following a technical glitch at Danske Bank ATMs has been given a suspended sentence.
Belfast Crown Court heard that Thomas Joseph Mongan (58) from Beechmount Walk, Belfast, was able to withdraw just over £23,000 from 10 ATMs from just after 10pm on September 6, until just past midnight.
Freeing him, Judge Neil Rafferty QC told Mongan that while he should have realised there was “no such thing as free money”, and that he was never going to get away with it, he felt constrained to follow sentences already passed in similar cases and suspend his 12-month jail term for two years.
Earlier, prosecution lawyer Simon Jenkins said that for several hours Danske Bank suffered a technical fault which allowed its Northern Ireland customers to make unlimited withdrawals regardless of what was in their accounts.
Mongan, he added, was just one of 1,520 customers who exploited the fault.
Mr Jenkins said that Mongan, who made 87 such withdrawals, later told police he was “sorry for what he done, that it was just one of those things” and being given the chance to get money, he took it, sharing it with his family, although he took full responsibility.
Lawyer Richard McConkey, defending, told Judge Rafferty that it had been more than nine years since Mongan had been before the courts.
The judge said he would take a similar approach in his case as adopted in the previous six.