A consultant surgeon has been sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding two insurance companies through a bogus breast cancer claim.
Emad Massoud, 52, from Ratoath in Co Meath, used a cancerous tissue sample from his mother-in-law to claim that his wife had breast cancer.
His wife, Gehan, received a three-year suspended sentence for her part in what was described as a particularly mean and nasty offence.
Judge Pat McCartan said Emad Massoud and his wife came up with a clever scheme of deceit simply to feed greed.
There was no compelling financial reason for it, he said, they were well capable of providing for themselves and their family.
The Massouds used a cancerous tissue sample from Gehan Massoud's mother to claim that Mrs Massoud had breast cancer.
Mr Massoud then operated on his wife to leave her with a surgical scar on her left breast.
The Scottish Provident and Lifetime Assurance companies paid out a total of more than €730,000.
In court, Mr Massoud claimed he removed his wife's tumour himself at his clinic in north Dublin, under local anaesthetic.
However, DNA analysis of the sample showed it could not have come from Mrs Massoud but had a 99% chance of being from her mother.
Judge McCartan said there was an incredible failure of two well-educated people to appreciate how much they were putting at risk.
Judge McCartan said the money was now all gone as the Massouds spent it, bought property and sent some back to Egypt where they were originally from.
The insurance companies are taking separate legal action in the High Court to recover the money.
