A judge has criticised a care home for vulnerable children which used “altered” Garda staff vetting and fake background checks as being “at the high water mark of criminality”.
Ideal Care Services was fined €3,000 and must pay €2,000 in costs.
Its director, Karen Akwuobi, a qualified psychologist with a master’s degree in human resource management, was handed a six-month suspended sentence.
They provider admitted failing to satisfy Tusla, the State’s child and family agency, that care home staff numbers, experience and qualifications were adequate. Children in homes in Carlow and Dublin 10 were exposed to “a high level of risk” due to the defendants’ failings and “fundamental misleadings”, Dublin District Court heard.
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Tusla brought the prosecution under the Child Care (Standards in Children’s Residential Centres) regulations and the Child Care Act.
Judge Anthony Halpin noted from the agency’s barrister Morgan Shelly, instructed by solicitor Arthur Denneny, that this was the first case to be brought under these laws.
He noted the evidence of Tusla witness Michael McGuigan, who voiced his “extreme concern” about the staffing procedures at Ideal Care facilities in Co Carlow and Dublin 10, which were inspected in 2023.
“The unscrupulous falsification of documents, including the altering of Garda vetting documents, places this offence at the high water mark of criminality,” Judge Halpin said.
The court heard that Akwuobi, of Mount Garrett Rise, Tyrelstown, D15, was a psychologist and a psychotherapist, and she had further qualifications: a master’s degree in human resource management and a primary degree in financial accounting.
However, given the guilty plea, testimonials and character evidence, he suspended the sentence on condition she did not reoffend within the next two years.
Defence counsel Henry Kelly asked the judge to note the guilty pleas and acceptance of responsibility by the company and Akwuobi, who did not give evidence.
Staff later passed Garda vetting, he said.
Mr McGuigan agreed with Mr Shelly that there was an immediate concern about the authenticity of the information supplied. The same or similar wording was used in several references purportedly written by different people from various organisations.
The references did not refer to people by name, but simply as “the candidate”. Signatures on the back of each were digital rather than original signatures, which was the usual practice, and did not match the supposed referee.
[ Companies being paid millions to run emergency housing for children in careOpens in new window ]
Mr McGuigan suspected Garda vetting documents, including reference numbers and dates, had been altered.
He checked some of the references to see if they were genuine. One staff member had a reference from a Limerick company, but its HR department had no record of that person having ever worked there.
The defendants had no previous convictions.
Mr McGuigan also investigated the centre in Dublin 10.
A review of personnel files there revealed similar problems.
The provider looked after eight to 10 children, but the case was concerned with the care of two or three children in the two centres.
Mr McGuigan agreed that the vetting procedures were “fundamentally misleading” and could expose vulnerable children to a high level of risk.
Ideal Care Services also pleaded guilty to failings to satisfy the agency that appropriate pre-employment suitability checks were conducted.
Ideal Care Services had an address at the Base Enterprise Centre, Ladyswell Road, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15, but “is no longer trading”, the court heard.
The full facts also applied to Akwuobi although she faced a single charge, the court heard.
