Tyrone woman’s £1.9m fraud brought firm to brink of collapse

AN employee who defrauded Cookstown-based company, Northern Mouldings Limited, owned by Heron Brothers, out of £1.9m has received a prison sentence of five-and-a-half years.

Julie McBrien (47), also known as Julie Hogg, of Screeby Road, Fivemiletown, committed 26 counts of fraud and money laundering over an eight-year period up to 2016.

She will serve half of the sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.

She was in charge of finances but filtered cash from the company, bringing it to the verge of collapse.

Figures identified the expenditure sustained a luxury lifestyle for McBrien in her lavish mansion.

An investigation revealed a lifestyle spend of just over £141,000; general expenditure £360,000; property development £356,000; interior design £311,000; fashion and beauty £231,000 and £145,000 on jewellery.

McBrien made up false bank statements and forged the signature of a former employee after failing to remove his name from the bank mandate.

She then forged a bank mandate making her solely in charge of finances, countersigning cheques to herself and creating false invoices.

Until yesterday (Wednesday), when she was sentenced in Dungannon Crown Court, there was an order in place preventing the publishing of her identity.

Judge Brian Sherrard QC dismissed a suggestion from her defence team of imposing a hospital order, noting McBrien had not received treatment and none of the assessing experts took action to compel her to be detained for treatment.

Lawyer Adrian O’Kane confirmed that “an appeal is being considered”.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Northern Mouldings Ltd said the company believed McBrien’s punishment “befits her crimes”.

The spokesperson said, “We hope it will act as a lesson to her and to any others who may in the future try to abuse and exploit the most basic of human traits – trust.

“As a long-serving member of staff who had gained a significant position of trust, Julie (Hogg) McBrien was involved in a major sophisticated and sustained fraud against the company over an eight-year period. We are led to believe that this was one of the most sophisticated fraud cases ever witnessed by the police and Public Prosecution Service.

“Her actions and the subsequent long-running legal process has been exceptionally difficult for the business, the shareholders, our loyal staff and all their families.

“Her efforts to delay the legal process and the attainment of reporting restrictions which has kept her name from the public domain until this point only served to exacerbate the distress caused to all her victims.”

The spokesperson added, “Separately we will continue to pursue legal actions against Julie (Hogg) McBrien to retrieve the funds the company was defrauded and we are confident we will be successful in that regard.”