Man laundered charity money

When he appeared at Craigavon Crown Court, last week Crumlin man Declan Shannon, 44, admitted two offences of possessing criminal property worth £8,650.

Nuala Magee 49, who appeared at an earlier hearing pleaded guilty to a total of 29 offences including 23 of false accounting five of transferring criminal property and a single charge of theft all of which accused on various dates between October 27 2008 and June 23 2011. Magee, whose address was given as Allengrove, Lurgan was the project manager and company secretary of the now defunct Lurgan based Together 4 All children’s charity. She created numerous fake invoices amounting to some £50,541 with much of the money being paid into the personal and business bank accounts of Shannon.

Although he admitted two counts prosecuting lawyer Nicola Auret said they were specimen counts that relate to the entirity of misconduct and includes a number of deposits.

Magee’s son Niall Atkinson 24, of Galwally Park, Belfast faced one count of possessing £3,600 of criminal property but after the plead of guilty Ms Auret asked for that offence to be ‘left on the books.’

Magee and Shannon had been living in Australia and Atkinson had been travelling in south east Asia but all three were ordered back to NI or face arrest.

They were both ordered to surrender their passports to the authorities. Magee and Shannon are on continuing bail pending sentence on April 27.

The Together 4 All charity was funded by an American company Atlantic Philanthropies. In 2007, they received $6.6m to implement a 10 year plan. It was described as a charity to improve the prospects of children and young people living around Lurgan. The goal is to improve mutual respect and understanding among children from all traditions and backgrounds.