2017-11-01
Man stole €70k from employer to help drug-addicted ex-girlfriend
Stage: Sentence
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: Michael Bowman SC, defending, submitted that his client's theft to help his former partner during her serious addiction was a "desperate act driven by emotion rather than greed." Judge Martin Nolan commented that Hynes's "motivation in some sense could be seen as noble" and added: "If there was a less noble motive for the theft then the result would have been different." He suspended the sentence for three years and ordered that Hynes repay the €40,000 still owed to the insurance company within that time.