Mother hoodwinks officials into paying dead son’s disability cash

A woman tricked the Department of Social Protection into paying disability alllowance into a bank account she opened in the name of her teenage son 24 days after he died in a car crash, a court has heard.

Jean Anne McCarthy (44), of Cois Coille, Tralee, Co Kerry, appeared before the Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to 25 counts of theft between December 3rd, 2014 and May 27th, 2015.

Her son Dylan (16) died in a collision on November 1st, 2014, days after his application for disability allowance had been granted. The teenager had mental health difficulties and had been approved for a €188 weekly payment which was to go to an Ulster Bank account.

The court heard that on November 25th, 2014, Ms McCarthy and an unidentified young person went to Bank of Ireland in Tralee and opened an account for her late son.

Disability allowance of €7,940.80 was subsequently lodged into the account by the department. The court heard the money was mostly withdrawn from ATMs or used in point of sale transactions at places such as Burger Shack and Spar. It was also used to make Sky TV payments, said Det Garda John Alfred.

Gone to Australia

Det Garda Alfred said the investigation began when the department received a phone call saying that Dylan had gone to Australia. The department made inquiries and discovered he was dead, the detective told Tom Rice, prosecuting.

Ms McCarthy later admitted she was the responsible for the withdrawals.

The detective agreed with Mr Rice that Ms McCarthy had “tricked” the department into paying money into the account and was accordingly guilty of theft on each occasion.

Brian McInernery, for Ms McCarthy, said it was “a bizarre case” involving woman who had a husband and four other children and no previous convictions. After Dylan died, the accused was prescribed medication and said her life was “in a haze”. Det Garda Alfred agreed that she had little recollection of opening the bank account.

“Opening the bank account was not done in a cold, calm, frame of mind,” said Mr McInerney in mitigation.

Ms McCarthy had agreed to pay €50 a week from her social welfare benefit to the department, said Mr McInerney. Some €7,614 of the €7,940 was outstanding but there had been “a personal injuries benefit to a family member” and the remaining sum had been lodged into the client account of her solicitor for payment.

Judge Thomas E O’Donnell adjourned the matter for finalisation.