³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

A woman has been given a 10-month suspended prison sentence for stealing £10,500 from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

Niamh Bonner, 54, of Central Drive in Londonderry, admitted stealing the money between August 2018 and December 2019 when she was treasurer of AA in the city.

Londonderry Crown Court was told Bonner had stolen from the charity to help her daughter whom paramilitaries had threatened to shoot over a £20,000 debt.

Judge Neil Rafferty KC said that while Bonner had committed a breach of trust, there was no suggestion of any personal gain.

The judge was told that in her position as treasurer, Bonner was tasked with recording and lodging money donated to the charity.

She began stealing the money in 2018 but this was not detected until the end of 2019.

The charity set up a committee to investigate the matter and Bonner was asked to account for the money.

She accepted responsibility and told the charity that her daughter had accrued a debt to a paramilitary organisation of about £20,000.

That resulted in her daughter being visited at her home by men who, she said, were "aggressive and abusive" and threatened to shoot her if she did not repay the money.

Bonner stole the money to help her daughter and agreed to pay it back in instalments but faltered in her payments after repaying £1,890.

That was when the police became involved, the court was told.

Judge Neil Rafferty said that in an attempt to help her daughter, who was in "an extreme position" Bonner had found herself "deeper and deeper in a hole".

He said the case was aggravated by the length of time it had taken place over but stressed the defendant "derived no benefit" from the theft.

He imposed a sentence of 10-months imprisonment suspended for three years.

Judge Rafferty said he was not imposing a compensation order as that would be setting Bonner up to fail.