The Court of Appeal has reduced the prison sentence imposed on Siobhan Maguire for a €1.18 million cheque fraud, quashing 32 concurrent four-year terms and replacing them with three years’ imprisonment, with the final year suspended for two years after her release.
In a judgment delivered on 3 October 2018, the court found that the sentencing judge had made an error of principle by failing to identify a headline sentence and explain the discount given for mitigation. It said the appeal court could not tell how the four-year term had been reached, and that the sentence appeared out of line with the comparator cases it reviewed.
Maguire had pleaded guilty to 32 sample counts representing 1,320 charges arising from the fraudulent negotiation of 660 cheques. She had worked as secretary and personal assistant to two professionals, with access to their banking details and responsibility for lodging cheques. The offending began in 2001 and involved €1,187,616.07 taken through accounts at Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks.
The two employers suffered losses of €719,099.74 and €468,516.33. Compensation from the banks reduced, but did not eliminate, their losses. The judgment said Maguire offered to sell her home to make restitution, but the employers did not want her to do so. It also recorded that the money was not shown to have funded an extravagant lifestyle.
The appeal court assessed the offending as serious and placed it in the upper mid-range of potential penalties, while finding it was not in the highest range. It set a six-year headline sentence and said the substantial mitigation warranted a discount of at least 50 per cent. Factors included her early guilty plea, cooperation and admissions, lack of previous convictions, low assessed risk of reoffending and genuine remorse.
The court also considered a positive prison report describing Maguire’s conduct and participation in activities at the Dóchas Centre. It said her progress merited recognition and could support rehabilitation. The appeal was allowed, the original sentences were quashed, and the new sentence was ordered to run from the same date as the sentence below. The final year was suspended for two years from her release, subject to a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.