The Health Service Executive is to receive €63,500 in compensation from a former director of a hepatitis C support group who stole over €116,000 from the group.
Bernadette Warnock, 63, today began a two-year sentenced imposed after she pleaded guilty to stealing the money from Positive Action Limited, which was set up in 1994 to help women who contracted hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in maternity hospitals.
Positive Action had 730 members and received the majority of its funding from the HSE.
It was closed down in 2014 following a HSE audit.
The company is now in liquidation and the HSE is the largest creditor.
Judge Melanie Greally had adjourned the case to allow time to decide on where the compensation should go.
The judge said she wanted to be sure it went to hepatitis C sufferers.
After hearing evidence from a HSE official she said she was satisfied that the money would reach former members of Positive Action if it was paid over to the HSE.
Today the court heard there are more than 1,300 people with hepatitis C in Ireland who receive enhanced medical services and supports funded by the HSE at a cost of €25m a year.
There are a number of support groups for patients but Judge Greally said as the groups were not registered charities it would be more appropriate to direct the compensation be paid to the section of the HSE which deals with hepatitis C patients.
Earlier this year Warnock, of Garrettstown, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to 71 counts of theft and fraud between 2009 and 2011 totalling €116,226.
Warnock, who contracted hepatitis C at the age of 24, has four previous convictions for forging cheques from her employer in 1990.
A previous hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Warnock's health had deteriorated in recent months, leaving her house bound, and a stay was put on her sentence until today to allow her attend for a hospital appointment.
Judge Greally said the offences were "an enormous betrayal of trust" and said: "Acts like these cast doubt and suspicion over the charity sector."
She said that the court could not disregard the fact that in the midst of her offending Warnock had performed much laudable work. She said her loss of reputation had been entirely merited but the court could take it into account.
She imposed a three-year sentence and suspended the final 12 months.
At the sentence hearing in March the court heard Ms Warnock was "the face of Positive Action" and had full control of the charity's bank accounts and cheque books.
She was involved in successfully campaigning for the establishment of a tribunal of inquiry into the infections and was also influential in having the government set up a compensation scheme for those affected.
When asked what she spent the money on she told gardaí, "that's the worst part of it, I have nothing to show from it".
Garda Wayne Donnelly told Sinead McGrath BL, prosecuting, that the charity's chairperson Antoinette Fitzgerald made a complaint to the fraud squad about "irregularities" found in the accounts.
Garda Donnelly obtained court orders for bank accounts and financial records and discovered Warnock had been writing cheques from the charity to herself.
Warnock forged the second director's signature that was required on the cheques.
She would also make cheques payable to cash and make incorrect entries into the charity's Sage finance system which would allow her to pocket the money.
By 2011 there were "difficulties" between the board of directors and suspicions began to emerge about Warnock's handling of the finances.
She was taken off the finance committee and was no longer allowed sign cheques. She also had to surrender her key to the safe.
She was contacted ahead of a HSE audit in 2013 to find out the location of certain cheque stubs.
Warnock admitted she had hidden them in the office instead of giving them to the accountant.
Gardaí were alerted shortly afterwards.
The court heard the chairperson, Ms Fitzgerald, spoke "very openly" about the guilt and breach of trust by Warnock.
She said the committee members were left "devastated" and families of those with hepatitis C could no longer rely on Positive Action for support.
Defence counsel Ronan Kennedy said she was extremely sorry for her actions. He said in 2011 she had put measures in place herself to stop her stealing more money from the charity and had instructed other committee members how to do certain tasks.
Mr Kennedy said she became involved in Positive Action after contracting the disease as a young women and that she "has devoted a significant portion of her life to the it".
He said she was a mother of four who has serious health and psychiatric problems.
