Gardaí are investigating the disappearance of more than €200,000 from a credit union in Cork after an internal audit found a series of financial irregularities and led to the dismissal of a staff member.

Detectives from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation started an inquiry after Gurranebraher Credit Union notified them of a series of financial irregularities in the accounts of more than 20 of its 15,000 or so members.

It is understood that an internal audit by the credit union last September uncovered the irregularities going back a number of years and involving sums of several thousand euros in each of the 20 plus accounts.

Gurranebraher Credit Union sought advice from gardaí in December before formally handing over the details of their audit to the fraud detectives at Anglesea Street Garda station in Cork in the past few weeks.

Dismissed

In a statement, Gurranebraher Credit Union confirmed that “a matter arose internally” and that it was investigated by the credit union and “and as a result of the investigation a staff member has been dismissed”.

“The matter has now been referred by Gurranabraher Credit Union to An Garda Síochána, and the Central Bank has been informed.”

The credit union said it was insured to cover such eventualities and that “no member is exposed to a loss as a result of this matter”.

It said the inquiry had no impact on its ability to provide services and that it remained strong and stable with more than €96 million in assets.

The Irish League of Credit Unions moved to reassure members of Gurranebraher and other credit unions, saying that cases of funds being misappropriated from accounts were extremely rare across the State’s 400 credit unions.

“As credit unions are democratic and fully accountable to their members, where such incidents occur, it often comes to public attention. This is distinctly different to other financial institutions where such incidents may be dealt with via a closed internal process.”

The league said credit unions had been strengthening their systems of internal control in recent times to prevent such incidents occurring and this process will continue to protect the savings of credit union members.

The news of the investigation comes just a week after it emerged that gardaí were also investigating the theft of over €400,000 from around 30 accounts at the Synergy Credit Union in Fermoy.