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7th September 2018
11:02am BST
An Irish woman working at Vogue in New York has appeared in court after being charged with stealing over $50,000 (around €42,000) from her employers.
Yvonne Bannigan, 24, from Dublin, had been working as a personal assistant to prominent Vogue editor-at-large Grace Coddington at the time of the alleged offences.
She reportedly made $53,564 in unauthorised purchases on Coddington’s credit card as is also accused of making up to $9,000 (€7,700) after selling her second-hand items online.
Coddington confronted her former assistant back in April after noticing the unauthorised transactions on her credit card statement, after which Bannigan encouraged her to go to the police to investigate.
Bannigan was later accused of five counts of grand larceny, though she maintains her innocence and recently rejected a plea deal.
Speaking to the Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, her lawyer Michael Cornacchia said:
“Never, ever during these two years did Coddington, who checked her credit card statements and kept track of her possessions, complain to Yvonne or anyone else about Yvonne’s conduct or any misuse of credit cards or misappropriation of any of her property.
“In fact, Yvonne was the one who suggested that Coddington go to the police to report the questioned charges and Coddington went to the police the next day with Yvonne’s encouragement.
“We have documentary proof of this and have submitted it to the prosecutors. We argued that Yvonne’s recommendation to take the issue to the police was not the behaviour of someone who had committed wrongdoing.”
