A Circuit Court judge has called for an examination of the system of pension payments by An Post after hearing how a man claimed a dead friend's pension for 23 years.
Judge Katherine Delahunt described as 'amazing' the ease with which 66-year-old Patrick McLoughlin of Ballyfermot Drive, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10, managed to defraud the State of over €136,000.
Judge Delahunt imposed a three-year suspended sentence on condition that he repay the money at €40 a week.
The Court heard that the man did not own his own home, had never taken a holiday and had spent the money on drink.
Judge Delahunt said the most striking feature of the case was the lax system that allowed the fraud to take place and said the system should be examined.
The money has been repaid by An Post to the Department of Social Community and Family Affairs and was classed as 'an overpayment', the court was told.
The judge suspended the sentence because Mr McLoughlin is 66 and is suffering from cancer and is also the sole carer for his wife.
Earlier this year, the court heard that the fraud was discovered when the Department of Social Welfare were preparing to pay a special presidential centenarian bounty payment to a man on reaching his 100th birthday.
When they called to his home they discovered he had died in 1984.
Patrick McLoughlin was seen on CCTV footage collecting the pension at Ballyfermot Post Office where he also claimed his own disability benefit.
He was arrested in 2007 and pleaded guilty to the offence.
He told gardaí he had stayed with the man for a time before he died. He had paid for his funeral and had claimed the pension to recoup the cost. Once he started, he could not stop, he said.
