Manager claimed €5k in illness benefit

A 42 year-old man whose business came under pressure falsely claimed illness benefit to the extent of € 5,184, Navan District Court was told.

Suzan Miah, with an address at St Benildus Villas, Navan and ran the Taj Mahal Restaurant was prosecuted by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection for making false declarations to gain the money on seven dates between February and August 2019.

The court was told that defendant had made claims for incapacity, stating that he was not working but in fact was working in the restaurant. He had since repaid all of the money.

A defending solicitor told the court that his client had been working at Supervalu but had had to give that up because of injuries suffered in a road accident. He had set up the Taj Mahal restaurant in Navan and had decided to “take up some of the slack from that restaurant. The restaurant had failed and he was now working as a taxi driver, the solicitor said. His client had made a desperate effort to keep the restaurant going, he added.

In order to repay the money he had claimed from sickness benefit, he had borrowed money from family and friends and it would take him some time to repay this. Judge Gerry Jones imposed a fine of €2,500 on one count of false declaration and took the remaining counts into consideration.