A DERRY woman won almost £400,000 on one day gambling - but lost it all within 48 hours.
Derry Crown Court was also told that a local hi-tech company, whose customer base includes Intel and Seagate, almost went to the wall after its office manager plundered the company's credit card accounts to the tune of just under £600,000, over a 16 month period starting in January 2016, to fund her addiction to online gambling.
As a result of the financial loss the company's three shareholders had to remortgage their homes to prevent their company from going under.
Before the court at her plea and sentencing hearing was Tracey Curran (44) from Moyola Drive in the Shantallow area of Derry.
She pleaded guilty to six charges of unlawfully taking the money from the Bank of Ireland and American Express credit card accounts belonging to her employer, S3 Alliance, which is based at the Skeoge Industrial Estate.
The court heard she gambled and lost all of the money on the 32 Red gambling website. On one day alone she won £399,000 but within 48 hours she had lost it all on gambling.
A crown lawyer told Judge Philip Babington that Curran worked for the company since 2008 and was in charge of the company's administration and had the passwords for and access to the company's credit card accounts.
The prosecutor said the offending was discovered when Curran was asked by her employers to prepare financial reports with a view to switching bank accounts.
At that time the shareholders became aware of requests from some of their suppliers about outstanding payments.
On April 24, 2017 met the shareholders and told them she had taken up to £400,000 from their accounts.
An audit was carried out after the matter was reported to police and it revealed that £592,915.44 had been stolen.
Curran resigned from the company within days and was arrested by police two months later and made full admissions.
The barrister said following negotiations between 32 Red and S3 Alliance the gambling company reimbursed the victims to the tune of £589,500.
A defence lawyer said Curran's gambling problem was that unlike drugs or alcohol addictions there were no visible signs of it.
He said it was in her bedroom in her parent's home where Curran "set up the online account out of boredom and became addicted to it".
The barrister said that Curran, who has been diagnosed as a pathological gambler with addiction to and an intense urge to gamble, contacted 32 Red about her gambling concerns with them but they responded by giving her a loyalty card and by giving her an enhanced membership status.
He said Curran had gained nothing financially from her gambling addiction. He said 32 Red's decision "to make good her criminality in January 2018 by reimbursing her former employers was unique and exceptional, for whatever reason" as the result of which the financial loss to the company was now about £4,000.
The defence barrister said after she resigned from S3 Alliance in April 2017, Curran was employed by another local company eight months later as an administrative assistant.
"Her current employer is fully aware of her offences but says while not all people are capable of reform, she continues to show she is a reformed person", Mr. Mallon said.
Judge Babington said it was a very serious case and said he would sentence Curran on January 10 and he released her on continuing bail until then.
