A post office manager who stole €22,000 from his employer to fund his gambling addiction has been jailed for four years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court with the final two years suspended.
Ken Dalton (36) initially started gambling with the post office’s money in order to win enough to hide a mistake he made which had left a €450 discrepancy in the accounts.
The gambling quickly got out of control and he was soon stealing up to €1,400 a week.
Dalton, Upper Mount Pleasant Avenue, Rathmines, had pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft totalling €22,000 from the Ringsend post office, Fitzwilliam Point, between August and November 2008. The money belonged to post office owner Mark Harrison.
Garda Alan Farrell told the prosecution that Dalton was responsible for balancing the books at the end of the day.