A post office manager who vanished last Wednesday after being summoned by company auditors to answer questions about €1.5m in missing funds made contact with his family yesterday.
Tony O’Reilly, 36, the manager of Gorey post office in Wexford, disappeared after being asked to present himself for interview last Wednesday following an An Post audit that discovered large amounts of cash were unaccounted for. O’Reilly said he could not attend the meeting because he had crashed his car while driving to work.
Gardai believe he then powered off his two mobile phones, drove to Dublin, abandoned his car and caught a train to Belfast. He also sent his wife a text to say he had been in a car accident. The father-of-one made contact with his family yesterday after reading newspaper reports of his friends and neighbours searching remote parts of Wicklow, Wexford and Carlow for his body. O’Reilly is to be interviewed by gardai. Initial investigation suggests some of the missing money may have been gambled on horse races and football matches. He had accounts with online bookmakers. Gardai say they are not seeking anyone else.