Former republican councillor Bernice Swift charged with defrauding Northern Ireland's Victims and Survivors Service

​Bernice Swift faces 14 charges of fraud by abuse of position under the 2006 Fraud Act, and another six of furnishing false information under the 1969 Theft Act (Northern Ireland).

Ms Swift served on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (and before that, Fermanagh District Council).

She had held a seat in the Erne West district on the western border of Fermanagh from 2005 to 2023, first as a Sinn Fein councillor, and later as an independent.

According to court records, she is due to appear at a hearing in Dungannon Magistrates' Court on Monday, alongside two co-defendants.

Ms Swift is 54 years old, and her address is given as Glenlevan Road, Derrygonnelly, Fermanagh.

The charges against her span November 2018 to September 2019.

All 14 of the fraud charges are a variation of the following:

That Ms Swift "whilst occupying a position in which you were expected to safeguard or not to act against the financial interests of the Victims and Survivors Service dishonestly abused that position in that you claimed cheque number [XXXX] had been paid to [various firms and individuals] with the intention by means of the abuse of that position to make a gain for yourself or another or to cause loss to the Victim Support Service or to expose that organisation to a risk of a loss, in breach of section 4 of the Fraud Act".

The false accounting charges all relate to receipts and quotes for stays in various hotels, namely the Armagh City Hotel, Westport Hotel, Hodson Bay Hotel, and The Four Seasons.

All six charges are variations on the following:

That Ms Swift "dishonestly with a view to gain for yourself or another or with intent to cause loss to another in furnishing information produced or made use of a certain account record or document required for an accounting purpose which to your knowledge was or might be misleading false or deceptive in a material particular, namely you produced a receipt for a stay at the Armagh City Hotel between 18th January 2019 and the 20th January 2019".

Her co-defendants are Kevin Gabriel Martin, aged 46 and also of Glenlevan Road, and Roisin Conlon, aged 46 and of Landbrock Road, Newtownbutler, Fermanagh.

Ms Swift had been elected as a Sinn Fein representative in 2005, but was suspended from the party in 2007 over a disagreement about its participation in District Policing Partnerships, which she said were “meaningless talking shops”.

By November 2007 she had left Sinn Fein.