Search
06 Sept 2025
Search
06 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Wendy MacBean, inset, appeared at the Crown Court in Derry
A 61-year-old Donegal woman who was once the recipient of a civic award in recognition of her cross-community work in Derry has pleaded guilty at the city's Crown Court to a series of financial offences involving the charity totalling £862,574.
At her re-arraignment before Judge Neil Rafferty KC, Wendy Macbean from Railway Park in St Johnston, Lifford admitted eight charges she'd originally denied. Seventeen other similar charges remain on the bill of indictment and are the subject of discussions between the prosecution and her defence team.
The defendant pleaded guilty to four charges of dishonestly making a false representation on July 23, 2018, that the Foyle Youth and Community Association (FYACA) had received donations totalling £840,899 between April 2018 and March 2019.
She also pleaded guilty to four charges of transferring a total of £21,675 from an account in the name of the FYACA to an account in her own name in July, August and September of 2018. Defence barrister Seamus McNeill SC described Macbean's guilty pleas as "unequivocal".
Judge Rafferty listed the case for a standby trial on May 19 with a review date on May 14 to allow for discussions to take place between the defence and prosecution in relation the the remaining 17 charges.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
