Grandmother jailed for two decades of social welfare fraud

A WOMAN from Mornington employed by the Dept of Social Protection who claimed almost €190,000 in deserted wife’s benefit while living with another partner for more than 20 years was jailed for a year at Trim Circuit Court.

Anne Byrne, a 65 year-old grandmother from Mornington Court, Mornington, pleaded guilty earlier this year to the theft of €188,295.99 in benefits from the Dept of Employment Affairs and Social Protection between November 1997 and April 2019 and a charge of falsely declaring in March 2016 that she was still entitled to deserted wife's benefit.

Evidence in the case was heard in February and adjourned for a probation report and sentencing.

The defendant, who had spent over 40 years working in the social welfare department, originally applied for the benefit in 1989 following the break up of her marriage in 1980 but continued to collect the payments after she began living with her partner in 1997, Garda Denise Clancy had told prosecuting counsel Carl Hanahoe BL at the earlier hearing.

The defendant's situation was reviewed in 2016 and she confirmed there had been no change in her circumstances and her offending only came to light two years later when she and her partner completed a registration form of their intention to marry the garda added.

The court heard that following Byrne's arrest in April 2019 all of the money had since been repaid and included a sum of €72,577.50 from her pension gratuity as she had been due to retire that year as well as some of the proceeds from the sale of a house she owned in Raheny.

A defence barrister told the court his client was "riddled with shame" for her actions which had not been "preplanned or premeditated acts of criminality".

He added that Byrne had not claimed the benefit which she was entitled to for eight years before 1989 "because she did not know she could claim".

At the resumed hearing Judge Martina Baxter described the case at the 'upper end of offending' and noted that Ms Byrne had been processing the claims for people in a similar position as herself.

"She was motivated by greed and was caught red handed," said the judge who described the offending as a most egregious breach of fiduciary duty made worse by the length of time involved.

The judge noted the defendant's breach of trust as an aggravating factor in the case but said she accepted the defendant's shame and remorse was genuine.

Adding that deterrent as well as punishment must be an important element of sentencing Judge Baxter imposed a sentence of four years with the final three years suspended on condition the defendant be of good behaviour for three years.