A Portadown man who stole almost £800 from his mother’s bank card has been sentenced to four months in prison after failing to make restitution.
The district judge told the 45-year-old: “Between 2012 and 2019 you did not think she was worth a single brass penny as she had to foot the bill.”
Thomas Joseph Creaney, of Moy Road, pleaded guilty to theft and seven counts of fraud by false representation at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Court heard that on September 15, 2012, police were contacted by the injured party who claimed money had been stolen from her Ulster Bank account.
This was in the form of several transactions between March and September of that same year.
The injured party told police she believed the card had been taken by her son, the defendant.
She said that Creaney previously had access to the card and knew her pin number as she had asked him to lift money in the past for her due to the fact she had a disability.
The injured party claimed she had phoned Ulster Bank to cancel the card on a prior occasion but this had not been done.
She had hidden the card in her bedroom but she later found the balance had gone up in the account and the card was missing.
It was estimated that the total taken from the account was £799.
The defendant was later interviewed about the offence and made full admission.
He told police that he had an alcohol addiction which he used money to feed.
The case had previously been adjourned for Creaney to make restitution but the court heard on Wednesday that this had not been done.
Defence barrister Ciara Ennis stated: “This is at the higher end of a breach of trust offence. Although it does go back some time Mr Creaney does have a relevant record.
“However, one must go back to 1991 to find an offence of this nature.”
She added: “Mr Creaney used the card to make a number of quite expensive purchases to feed his alcohol problem.
“He now lives with his uncle but is still in contact with his mother.”
Ms Ennis asked that the defendant was offered a period of probation and further time to pay the restitution.
District Judge Bernie Kelly stated: “There is no point, he has no desire, no rush to pay it he has had since 2012 to do so.”
She continued: “Mr Creaney, you stole from someone who trusted you, she gave you her pin number, a person who has issues getting about, a person for whom without you would not be here; a person who brought you into this world, who nurtured and cared for you, someone who needed you after all that.”
District Judge Kelly added: “As if that’s not enough, between 2012 and 2019 you did not think she was worth a single brass penny as she had to foot the bill.
“The reason I ask for restitution is to gauge someone’s remorse. It is the only tangible way”.
Creaney was sentenced to four months in prison for the offences.
