JUDGE PATRICK McCartan described the fraud as "a clever scheme of deceit". He said Gehan Massoud's mother had sought the assistance of her daughter and son-in-law when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in Egypt, and they used her tissue sample for the fraud.
He said it was never suggested to the jury that Gehan Massoud was forced to engage in the fraud, and that "she made her own body available and agreed to it being desecrated" so that her husband could create a scar consistent with a tumour being removed from her left breast.
Considering the fact that there were no prospects of the Massouds "righting the wrong they have been found guilty of doing" and compensating the insurance companies for their losses, he said the offence warranted a seven-year sentence.
He reduced this to four years for Dr Massoud having taken into account he was previously of good character and to three years for Gehan Massoud because he said she must be given credit for not giving evidence and deliberately misleading the jury. Det Supt Eugene Gallagher said the Massouds' crime was motivated by greed.
He said there were 12 new fraud cases reported last year, and the Irish Insurance Federation estimated the cost of such crimes to insurance companies was some €10 million per year.
The sentence in the case reflected the serious nature of such crimes, and while there might be no violence involved those charged with such offences would find themselves before the same courts as robbers and drug dealers.
Det Supt Gallagher said people who suffered with cancer would be "rightly outraged" by the Massouds' crime, which, he said, was made more serious by the fact that Gehan Massoud allowed her body to be disfigured to make the claim more credible.
Det Sgt Declan Daly said this was "a unique type of fraud that has a sinister and serious spin on it" considering that Dr Massoud had used cancerous tissue from his mother-in-law and "then scarred his own wife's body so that it would look like the tumour came from her".