Real estate agent embezzled deposit refund money and gambled it away

A young man from the Irish city of Dublin has in several cases defrauded his employer as well as his customers of large sums of money. Besides this he also transferred unauthorised deposit payments to his bank accounts. But why did it take nearly two years for the deception to be discovered?

Around a week ago we reported about a young woman, who had defrauded her employer of 940,000 AUD and gambled away the money in the Social Casino. Today‘s case revolves around a fraudulent real estate agent from Ireland. He is being accused that during the time between June 2018 and June 2020 he embezzled the refund from deposit and this was done in several cases. The man allegedly used the acquired money to finance his gambling addiction.

Total damages amounting to 70,000 Euro

The 35-year-old real estate agent was responsible, among other things, to see that deposits are returned back to customers by the company. However instead of fulfilling his duties, the man logged into the system and changed the disbursement data. As a result he received the refunds of the deposits in his account in an unauthorised manner and the customers remained empty handed. To prevent the matter from leaking out the man changed the disbursement data in the system, after the payment to his account was carried out. Therefore for this reason the fraud was discovered only after for two years. Then a customer who was waiting for his deposit refund contacted the employer of the real estate agent. This lead to the relevant investigations which confirmed the suspicions of fraud. The estate agent was then confronted with the criminal charge.

Real estate agent admits and makes an effort to provide reparations for the damages caused

After the 35-year old was approached and confronted with the irregularities he admitted immediately and cooperated very well. As a first step to make amends the man refunded 10,000 directly to his employer. Since the accused showed insight and had no criminal record in the past, he came out from court with a penalty of 5,000 Euro. The final judgement will however be heard in February 2022. In another case we had reported that, a gambling addict had gambled away 150,000 in the online casino.

Was the addiction the reason for the deeds?

The defence of the Irish real estate agent pointed out in court that his client was hugely addicted to gambling. He had only abused the system and took the money for the deposits to be able to finance his gambling problem. He had especially become a slave of sports betting. In summer we had already published an article about how can one recognise and fight gambling addiction.

Despite the fact that he admitted the fraud, the real estate agent lost his licence and he is not allowed to operate as an estate agent anymore. Therefore according to his own statement, he is currently unemployed. His father is ready to refund the rest of the embezzled money which amounts to 59,000 to his former employer.

Conclusion

A real estate agent from Ireland had embezzled the disbursement for deposits of several cases for two whole years. In spite of the damage which amounted to around 70,000, the man only received a low fine. We can only hope that the 35-year old will control his gambling addiction and find a new job very soon.

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