A man who fraudulently claimed almost €140,000 of a dead acquaintance’s pension for 23 years has had his sentence adjourned at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Patrick McLoughlin (65) of Ballyfermot Drive, Ballyfermot, pleaded guilty to ten sample charges including forging pension vouchers and theft at Upper Ballyfermot Post Office on dates between September 21st, 1984 and June 1st, 2007. He had no previous convictions.
The fraud was discovered after social welfare staff were preparing to make the "presidential centenarian bounty payment" to the deceased man whose 100th birthday would have been in April 2007.
Judge Katherine Delahunt adjourned the case to see if McLoughlin could continue repaying the debt to An Post, who has reimbursed the social welfare department, out of his disability allowance and into an account to which he had no withdrawal access.
The judge told Mr Paul Carroll BL, defending, she wanted "that avenue to be sealed off".
She had adjourned the case last July to allow for McLoughlin to attend for cancer treatment. He was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth seven years ago and is also the primary carer for his seriously ill wife.
Sergeant Colm Kelly told Mr Bernard Condon BL, prosecuting, in July, that an officer for social welfare called to the registered home of Mr Gerry Donnelly in order to organise the presidential award.
He learned that the current owner had bought the house in 1989 and gardaí were contacted. A death certificate later showed that Mr Donnelly had died on September 17th, 1984.
McLoughlin was arrested in June 2007 after gardaí viewed CCTV footage of him collecting Mr Donnelly's pension at his local post office.
He claimed that Mr Donnelly's son had stayed at his home and left his father's pension book behind. He also told gardai that a bus pass, in Mr Donnelly's name but bearing McLoughlin's photograph, had been supplied to him by the same man.
McLoughlin later admitted that he stayed with Mr Donnelly shortly before he died and that he had later paid for his funeral. He said Mr Donnelly's son had allowed him to claim the man's pension in order to recuperate the costs.
Sgt Kelly agreed with Mr Carroll that his client had arranged a scheme to repay the State after social welfare advised him of what they termed "an overpayment".
He accepted that McLoughlin had collected his own pension in the same post office and was known to the staff there.
Sgt Kelly further accepted that McLoughlin did not own a car or his own house nor had he ever traveled abroad or lived "the high life".
Mr Carroll told Judge Delahunt that his client had suggested to the Department of Social Welfare that they deduct money from his disability allowance in order to pay back the money he stole.
He said that McLoughlin felt it difficult to "remove himself from the situation" once he started to collect Mr Donnelly's pension but asked the court to accept that he not "amassed any wealth" out of the offence.