An accountant embezzled money from his employer to create a nest egg for his family, a court was told.
Daniel Fitzpatrick, aged 29, was employed by OCRA between 2009 and 2014 when he diverted work away from his employer, posing as another practitioner approved by them and pocketing the fees.
When he was arrested, Fitzpatrick, of Ballalough Estate, Andreas, admitted he had deceived people into thinking he was carrying out work on behalf of OCRA. He admitted obtaining money totalling around £13,000 by deception over a period of about five years.
Defending him, Jim Travers pointed out his client had been much younger when he had embarked on his course of action, and was working hard to support a partner and children.
‘He accepts that his professional life as it was is now over,’ he said. ‘It was an illogical decision, to build up a nest egg for his family because ironically he feared for his future. He made no attempt to justify himself, blame others or minimise his behaviour, saying, ‘‘what I did was wrong’’,’ Mr Travers added.
He said the money was not spent or used frivolously to fund an extravagant lifestyle. In fact, the full amount remained available in the defendant’s accounts and could easily be restored to OCRA.
A favourable pre-sentence report on Fitzpatrick described him as ‘an insecure, unassertive individual who genuinely feared for the financal security of his family’.
He provided the court with a number of references which were described as ‘helpful and heartfelt’, and the court was told he had managed to secure new employment to support his family, despite the legal proceedings.
He admitted five offences of obtaining money by deception and two offences of attempting to do so.
Sentencing him, Deemster Alastair Montgomerie described it as a tragic case which was aggravated by the amount of money involved, the timescale over which the offending took place, the sophisticated nature of the offence, and the breach of his employer’s trust. You and your family have paid a high price and will continue to do so I regret I have no alternative but to impose immediate custody,’ he said.
He was jailed for six months.