THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a consultant surgeon and his wife against their convictions for defrauding insurance companies of almost €750,000 through a false breast cancer claim.
The court, with Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Michael Hanna, yesterday upheld the convictions of Emad and Gehan Massoud.
Dr Emad Massoud (53), Woodview, Brownstown, Ratoath, Co Meath and his wife, Gehan Massoud (46) a nurse, both originally from Alexandria in Egypt, were convicted in March 2008 by a jury at Dublin Circuit Court.
Emad Massoud was jailed for four years, while Gehan Massoud received a three-year suspended sentence. Judge Patrick McCartan said he didn’t want the couple, who have four children, to be incarcerated at the same time.
The Massouds were found guilty of defrauding €685,658 from Scottish Provident Ltd on March 25th, 2002, and €45,338 from Lifetime Assurance Company Ltd on February 22nd, 2002, by having that sum transferred to their account at the Bank of Ireland in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
The couple denied they had intended to defraud the insurance companies by falsely pretending Mrs Massoud had suffered breast cancer, thus obliging the companies to settle serious illness claims.
The Massouds used a tissue sample from Gehan Massoud’s mother who had just been diagnosed in Egypt as having breast cancer, and claimed that the tumour had been taken from her, it was claimed.
Both appealed against their convictions on grounds including the trial judge’s charge to the jury was unfair and favoured the prosecution.
They also disputed the validity of a production order served by gardaí on the Mater hospital in order to obtain tissue samples submitted in the names of Gehan Massoud, as well as histology reports, radiology reports, medical scans and mammogram results.
Giving the CCA judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Kearns said the appeal court was satisfied the jury “was not misled” by the various directions given by the trial judge, who was entitled to make the comments complained of in his charge. The trial judge had repeatedly stressed the facts of the case were solely a matter for the jury, he added.
The CCA also ruled the search warrant was valid and was not misleading, and that a simple clerical error in the warrant date was of “no material substance”. The execution of the warrant by gardaí did not violate Mr Massoud’s constitutional rights, it found.
Prior to the investigation, Dr Massoud had been working as a consultant surgeon with both the Wellman Clinic and the Nobel Clinic, which operate out of the same building in Eccles Street near Dublin city centre.