Thieves raid disabled girl’s bank account

A DUBLIN couple have expressed their shock and horror after a charity they set up for their disabled daughter was targeted by scam artists recently.

Robert Byrne, from Stepaside and Antoinette McLoughlin, from Coolock, established

‘Katie’s Dream to Walk’ to help raise the funds needed to send their six-year-old daughter to the US where she can learn how to walk.

Little Katie Byrne has Cerebral Palsy and cannot walk independently.

However, she has been accepted for an expensive operation called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) that a hospital in America specialises in.

The medics in St Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri have told Katie’s parents that they believe she is an ideal candidate for the specific treatment.

But both parents, who now live in Cork, need over

?¬60,000 for the life changing operation and had campaigned tirelessly to raise the money.

The campaign had been doing well until they realised that a number of illegal direct debits had taken money from the bank account that was set up for donations.

“Over the last two weeks Katie’s fundraising account was used by a person or persons to set up direct debits to pay their mobile phone bills,

? Katie’s horrified mother Antoinette explained.

“On finding this out we went to our local bank to inform them of the fraudulent transactions.

“Although they refunded us the amounts that were taken,

?¬220.02 and

?¬75 and informed the gardai, because we are not the injured party we cannot make any complaint about the fraud on Katie’s account.

“The bank has been refunded by the mobile phone companies so they also cannot make a complaint so it looks like whoever did this will more than likely get away Scott free with what they have done.

“We just need to let everyone know what is happening with Katie’s account so other people who are fundraising can take steps to secure their bank accounts.

“We have also had to set up new bank accounts to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

?

Antoinette added:

“Shocked is an understatement. We are more annoyed that some lowlife could stoop as low as this, knowing what the account is for.

“We are concerned that this will happen to other charities’ fundraising accounts. We want to let as many people as possible know so they can be more vigilant.

“We were very lucky that it was relatively small amounts that were taken and that they didn’t take every cent we had in the account.

“We have had to set up a savings account for Katie and close the original account that we had for her to ensure this doesn’t happen again to us.

“Savings accounts do not accept direct debits or any sort of transaction. You have to walk into a bank to withdraw money so at least we know now that whoever this piece of scum is that used Katie’s account won’t be able to access it again.

“It is so hard nowadays trying to raise funds as there are so many needy causes out there and to have someone take what’s not rightfully theirs from a child’s account is the lowest anyone can go.

?

Despite the setback Katie’s parent are well on their way to raising the

?¬60,000 needed to send Katie to the US.

“We have a lot of friends and family in Dublin who are helping us out but we still need help with fundraising,

? Antoinette added.

“We understand this is a huge amount of money but to see Katie walk independently would be fantastic for her. It will give her so much more freedom and she will be less restricted to do normal things that you and I take for granted every day like brushing her teeth, putting her shoes on and going out into the garden to run around.

?

She added:

“Raising

?¬60,000 won’t be an easy task but a lot of the locals in Cobh and our own family and friends in Dublin, where we are both from, are already organising different fundraisers for her which gives us even more hope that she will get to St Louis for this operation.

?

To make a donation go to www.katiesdreamtowalk.com and click the donate button or lodge directly into Katie’s account. The new bank details are Bank of Ireland account no 28324824/sort code 902637. Links to Katie’s Facebook and Twitter are on the website too.