A 74-year-old highly-respected former school teacher and part-time accountant entered a guilty plea in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, admitting to pilfering money via his position as an accountant at Eddie Rockets in order to fund his online poker play.
While employed by the fast food chain, John Carlos altered cheque amounts and forged signatures from 2005 and 2008 to the tune of €135,000, depositing the ill-gotten gains at Paddy Power Poker. His addiction to poker on the virtual felt apparently developed in his sixties following a successful career teaching school children, the Irish Independent reported.
A resident of Galway, Carlos's misdeeds caught up with him in 2008 when his employer, Eddie Rockets franchise owner Peter Fortune, received a letter from government offices requesting a tax audit. An independent accounting firm hired by Fortune to unearth bookkeeping discrepancies discovered the suspicious cheque activity perpetrated by Carlos.
Carlos' guilty plea comes on the heels of an armed robbery charge levied against a senior citizen in the U.S. about three weeks ago for attempting to hold up a bank in order to make up for losses playing poker and betting on horses. John A. Dougherty, 73, faces nine counts related to a failed bank robbery in Florida in January.
Carlos will be sentenced on June 5.
