Patrick Challoner jailed for bank theft and deception

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Patrick Challoner was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 11 January 2024 to three years in prison, with the final 12 months suspended for two years. Judge Elma Sheahan passed sentence.

Challoner pleaded guilty to five sample charges of theft from Allied Irish Bank’s Artane branch on dates between August 2002 and February 2011. He also pleaded guilty to deception by fraudulently inducing a named person to authorise a €300,000 transfer from their bank account on 2 December 2016. The charges represented more than 100 charges. The proceedings were reported on 11 January 2024.

The court heard that Challoner created fictitious, undocumented loans and funded them with money from customers who believed it would be invested. Funds were moved between customer accounts during a scheme that lasted 16 years. AIB’s total loss was €3.2 million, including customer reimbursements and the cost of an external audit.

Detective Garda Gareth Lynch said Challoner had told gardaí that the situation began after he failed to progress a customer’s mortgage application efficiently because of other work pressures. The detective said Challoner took money from another customer’s account to provide what the home buyer believed was a bridging loan. He later agreed with defence counsel that Challoner had been trying to meet customers’ demands rather than enrich himself, and confirmed there was no evidence he benefited financially from the scheme.

Judge Sheahan cited the seriousness, scale, duration and repetitive nature of the offending as aggravating factors. She took account of Challoner’s early guilty plea, cooperation, acceptance of responsibility and previous good character, and noted his remorse and repayment of €60,000.