If Santa fills your stocking with counterfeit notes “I suggest you burn them,” Judge John Neilan warned a Mullingar woman as he gave her the benefit of the Probation Act.
Teresa McCarthy of 9 St Anthony’s Cottages, Mullingar handed a bundle of fake €50 notes to staff at the AIB in Oliver Plunkett Street in September 2008 to lodge to her account.
She pleaded guilty to the offence in February and was before the court with a probation report. On that date, the court heard that the quality of the notes was reasonable but they all had the same serial number.
“You were a person being used by someone else,” said Judge John Neilan. “I don’t know who, but I have a strong idea,” he added referring to someone mentioned in the report.
Describing her as the “fall girl,” he said the 42-year-old was “just a pawn played in a game by a larger group” and suggested she followed the wisdom of people wiser than her.
Because she has no previous convictions, he dismissed the offence under the Probation Act.
