Fraudster jailed after swindling money from trust fund set up by dead soldier

Paul Higgins

A fraudster who swindled more than £150,000 from a trust fund a dead soldier left for his two children was jailed for two years today (mon).

Craigavon Crown Court heard that as well as misappropriating £161,370 from Raymond Moore’s trust fund, 45-year-old David Flannigan also swindled £23,508 from Orchard County Travel and a further £66,800 from Portadown Masonic recreation club.

Ordering him to spend a further two years on licence after his release, Judge Donna McColgan QC told Flannigan that while all his offences represented a “significant breach of trust” placed in him, “the offence involving Rebecca and Zac Moore is repugnant in the extreme.”

Having heard that Rebecca Moore only received £10,000 of the money left to her by her father, killed in Iraq in 2007, the judge commented that “it would be difficult to imagine a more serious breach of trust.”

At an earlier hearing father-of-two Flannigan, from the Lurgan Road in Portadown, pleaded guilty to three counts of abusing the positions of trust he held with the R. N. Moore Will Trust, Orchard County Travel Ltd and Portadown Masonic Recreation Club on various dates between 1 January 2010 and 1 June 2014.

Opening the facts last Monday, prosecuting lawyer Nicola Auret revealed that Flannigan swindled £161,370 from the R N Moore Will Trust, £66,800 from the Masonic Recreation club and £23,508 from the Richill based travel company.

Flannigan had also faced seven counts of using, possessing and transferring criminal property and his now estranged wife, 42-year-old Judy Flannigan, from Kernan Hill Manor, also in Portadown, had faced a single count of possessing £121,357 of criminal property but all of those offences were "left on the books” following his confessions of guilt.

Ms Auret described how Raymond Moore, a former soldier, was working as a security contractor in Iraq when he was tragically killed by an improvised explosive device in September 2007 and that Flannigan “was appointed executor in the will and was the sole signatory” for a bank account and trust fund Mr Moore set up for his two children.

In relation to Orchard County Travel, Flannigan had a “managerial role” which gave him “access to the company’s various bank accounts” while he was a treasurer for the Masonic recreation clubs so “therefore had access to the clubs bank accounts.”

In short, Ms Auret disclosed how Flannigan “had a position of trust in relation to all three bodies and he moved monies from seven accounts by electronic transfer” into and out of their various accounts “and two personal accounts in the name of his wife.”

She told the Court that in December 2009, the trust fund “had a balance of £122,221,” with £100,000 then placed into a legitimate investment scheme.

“This should have left an account balance of £22,221,” said Ms Auret but a £10k cheque was written out to the benefit of William Brown, the owner of Orchard County Travel and a further cheque for £10k written out to a firm of Belfast solicitors.

That latter cheque, the court heard, was paid by Flannigan to avoid his impending bankruptcy declaration.

“The trust account was systematically defrauded by electronic transfer,” said the lawyer who revealed that by February 2010, the trust funds account balance was £226.

“Having effectively exhausted the money in the account and invested £100k, he set about clawing back the funds which he securely invested,” Ms Auret told the Court adding that repeated refunds to the trust fund from Scottish Equitable and Prudential Insurance were “immediately transferred” on the same day they were deposited.

By June 2010, “the account balance was £26,” the Court heard.

Ms Auret said each of the transfers were referenced with either D. Flannigan or DM Flannigan and that “despite over £42k being deposited into the trust in 2011,” by way of investments refunds, “the account balance at the end of the year I’d £41.50.”

Rebecca Moore, Mr Moore’s daughter, was approaching her 21st birthday when she would be eligible to gain from the trust fund her father had set up and she contacted her dad’s solicitors Gus Campbell who gave her Flannigan’s contact details.

In September 2012 after £25k had been paid into the trust fund by Prudential insurance, Flannigan transferred £10,000 to Rebecca Moore but as Ms Auret highlighted, “That’s the only funds that any of the beneficiaries received from the total amount” as the remainder “was used by the defendant for his own purposes.”

In his communication with Ms Moore, Flannigan “continued to deliberately lie and obfuscate” about getting money from her trust fund and even “earning her if severe tax consequences of funds were moved early.”

“This was clearly a fiction for the defendant to try to buy himself time to extricate himself from the situation,” said the lawyer who told the court that such was the “pattern” of monies moving in and out of the trust account “the defendant was using the trust account as his own current account.”

Turning to Orchard Travel Company, Ms Auret disclosed how Flannigan’s father had a working relationship with William Brown, the owner of the company, which lead Flannigan to be brought in but that in July 2010 after Mr Brown suffered a stroke, “this left the defendant effectively in financial control with little interference.”

“He systematically defrauded the trust account and ploughed these funds into Orchard Travel,” the lawyer told the court.

Arrested and interviewed by police, Flannigan claimed Mr Brown had asked him for financial help and he always expected the money to be repaid

As Ms Auret submitted however, there was no written agreement, no repayment schedule, no one else connected with the business knew anything about it and Mr Brown was not in a position to corroborate any of his claims.

“We say by his plea of guilty he accepts he was acting dishonestly,” declared the lawyer, “he admitted taking the money but refused to accept he had benefitted personally, but it is quite clear he did.”

She added that plea was one mitigating factor but that the scale of the fraud, the length of time over which they were committed and the fact that he was in a position of trust for all three bodies were aggravating features.

In court today (mon), Judge McColgan said she considered Flannigan’s offences were aggravated by the fact there were multiple victims, the “considerable” amount of money involved and the length of time over which the frauds were committed.

In mitigation, she said was Flannigan’s guilty plea, clear record and that he had “reassigned his pension rights” to the Moore’s.

“While that may in some way to alleviate the financial predicament of Rebecca and Zac Moore, it still leaves a deficit of almost £100,000,” said the judge.

She told Flannigan that had he fought the case and been convicted, he would have faced a six-year term but that given his plea and the contents of the various reports, “I’m prepared to reduce that to four years.”

Ms Auret confirmed that as Flannigan’s pension pot cannot be handed over until some unspecified future date, a compensation order would not be appropriate but Judge McColgan said she had noted “the money will be reassigned” to Mr Moore’s children.