€20,000 one-parent claim while married
Esther Ogundare, aged 40, of Bremore Pastures Drive, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, was fined €1,000 after she was prosecuted the Department of Social Protection. The fraud was detected when she applied for a bereavement grant after her husband died.
Prosecution solicitor Joseph Maguire told Judge John Brennan at Dublin District Court that the total fraud was €20,406, but the woman has repaid €17,783.
He said she got married in November 2010 but her husband died in 2012. The fraud was detected after the mother of one applied for a death grant, he said.
He said the charges were failing to notify the social welfare office and making false declarations. She now gets the widow’s pension from which €29 a week is being deducted, the court was told.
The offence can result in a fine of up to €2,500 and a possible six-month sentence in addition to having to repay the social welfare authorities who can continue to recoup money owed after a prosecution has concluded.
Defence solicitor Joe Coonan told the court she and her husband married in Nigeria but did not disclose it to the authorities. Pleading for leniency, he said she has some employment as an educational support worker and has no prior criminal convictions.
The sworn declarations were aggravating factors and there was “a certain amount of mala fides”, said Judge Brennan, however, he noted she will have finished repaying the social welfare office in a year and nine months.
He said it was a serious offence but noted her guilty plea and he added the lack of previous convictions was a major mitigating factor.
Taking her financial circumstances into account, he set the fine at €1,000 which has to be paid within six months.
