Claudy man pleads guilty to defrauding National Autistic Society of £29,000

A man has pleaded guilty at Derry Crown Court to defrauding his former employer, the National Autistic Society, of £29,000, over a seven year period starting in September 2014, by using their corporate credit card for his personal spending.

Timothy Glenn, 49, from Millers Close in Claudy, was listed for sentencing today, however Judge Roseanne McCormick KC asked prosecution and defence barristers if they believed the delay in finalising the case "should impact on sentencing".

In response the prosecution barrister submitted "the passage of time should not impact on the sentence".

He said the offence was detected in 2022 after the National Autistic Society reported the fraud to the police following an external audit. 

The original investigating officer then became unavailable due to a long term illness and the case was allocated to another detective constable who had to review the papers. The file was then submitted to the Public Prosecution Service in 2023.

The prosecutor said the case was then delayed by the backlog of prosecutions post Covid. He said while it was a serious offence it was not a priority case in that it did not involve either sex abuse or violence.

"No culpable delay was involved and there is no prejudice to the defendant", he told Judge McCormick.

Defence barrister Dean Mooney submitted that "the delay and or passage of time" should be taken into consideration before Glenn is sentenced.

He said there was a delay between the National Autistic Society's internal investigation and the matter being reported the police. Mr. Mooney said Glenn left his employment with the N.A.S. in late 2021. He was first interviewed by the police in June 2023 and during his interview made "full and frank admissions" before his first court appearance in June of this year.

Mr. Mooney said Glenn resigned from the N.A.S. in 2021 "not knowing about his fate". He has since obtained other employment and has informed his current employer about the court case.

Judge McCormick said before she sentenced Glenn she wanted to know the date when the file was submitted to the P.P.S. and what was the date of the decision to prosecute Glenn. 

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She said she also wanted to know the date when Glenn left his employment with the N.A.S. or had his employment terminated and said she further wanted to know when the N.A.S. first contacted the police.

She said she would sentence Glenn on Friday and said she accepted that it was a breach of trust case.