Restaurant manager stole cash from employer because of dispute

A RESTAURANT manager who stole €6,900 from his former Dublin employer because of a dispute with the owner has received a one year suspended sentence and been ordered to repay the money.

Detective Garda Sarah Barry told the court that Tony Kelly (50) had access to the restaurant safe as some of his weekly wages were in cash.

Kelly went to the restaurant on a day off, took €6,900 and then phoned the owner to say he would never see him again.

Kelly, of Farmleigh Woods, Castleknock, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing the money from La Maison restaurant, Castle Market, Dublin, on December 15, 2014. He has no previous convictions.

The court heard that Kelly previously owned a restaurant in Limerick from 2000 to 2005 and had been on prescribed medication at the time of the theft as he was close to burning out from long work hours.

Det Gda Barry told Anne-Marie Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that Kelly met gardaí by appointment a few weeks later and claimed he had been owed this amount from work.

The detective told the court that the owner had refuted this. He said Kelly now had €3,000 to offer the injured party and was also in a position to raise the balance of the stolen money.

She agreed with Antoinette Simon BL, defending, that her client had always co-operated with gardaí and had made full admissions. The detective said she didn’t believe Kelly would appear before the courts again.

Judge Martin Nolan said he accepted there had been a dispute, that Kelly had been under “considerable stress” and that his “thinking had been impaired”.

He noted Kelly’s long work record and his promise to repay the money. He gave Kelly 18 months to collect the balance of the money.

Aoife Nic Ardghail