A 69-year-old man has been given a suspended prison sentence after defrauding the Department of Social Protection of more than €258,000.
Thomas Leniston, of Cashel Park, Castlebar, Co Mayo, pleaded guilty to 19 sample charges of fraud and larceny at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court today.
He offered to pay €80,000 in compensation to the Department.
The Court heard he had received the monies by pretending for some 14 years that his dead wife was still alive.
Detective Garda Hugh O'Donnell told the court Leniston continued to collect carers allowance, disability allowance and respite care allowance in respect of his wife, despite the fact that she died in July 2000.
The monies were collected weekly at Castlebar Post Office.
The scheme was uncovered last year when the Revenue Commissioners probed a joint bank account in the names of the accused and his late wife, Patricia.
Revenue noted there was more than €100,000 in the account. This information was relayed to the Department of Social Protection who carried out an investigation.
Detective Garda O'Donnell told the Court there were 707 weekly disability payments totalling €116,743.50, 701 weekly carers allowance totalling €125,524.50 and 13 annual respite grant payments totalling €16,287.90 giving a cumulative total of €258,555.70.
Judge Rory McCabe described the fraud as one of extraordinary duration.
However, he said it would not be in the interest of justice to send Leniston to jail immediately as this would involve additional expense to the taxpayer and rule out the possibility that the Department would recover any more of their loss.
The Judge, who noted that Leniston's mother-in-law was dependent on him, imposed a suspended two year prison sentence on each of the sample charges to which the defendant had pleaded guilty.
In addition, the Judge ruled that the part compensation of €80,000 offered by the defendant be paid to the Department of Social Protection.
Judge MacCabe stated: "It isn't enough, but it's better than nothing".
The garda witness explained that when the accused was detained at Castlebar Garda station he was quite forthright in his interviews.
He said that each week he simply went into Castlebar Post Office and handed over his and his wife's social welfare card got the various payments in cash.
Detective Garda O'Donnell said Leniston told him he was looking after his elderly mother-in-law (90) and had some health concerns himself.
He added that he felt he was entitled to some payments from the Department but should have regularised these matters after the death of his wife.
Cross-examined by Michael Bowman, counsel for the accused, the garda witness said Leniston and his wife, who had Crohn's Disease, had moved from London to Castlebar in 1995 in the hope she would have a better quality of life there.
Detective Garda O'Donnell agreed with Mr Bowman (counsel for Leniston), that the defendant was quiet, inoffensive, did not drink, and lived a completely unostentatious lifestyle.
Mr Bowman agreed the sums involved were "truly enormous" but maintained "this was a sin of omission as opposed to somebody who engaged in a calculated scheme of deception".
Counsel went on to say that Leniston did not live a conspicuous lifestyle and was not motivated by greed.
Mr Bowman said the accused had a considerable sum of money in the bank not as a result of ill-gotten gain but which resulted from the sale of a family home in 2006.
Mr Bowman said the defendant, who seemed to be genuinely sorry for what he did, was willing to pay €80,000 in compensation to the Department.
In his summing up, Judge Rory MacCabe said the accused had told the probation and welfare services he forgot to notify the appropriate authorities of his wife's death.
The Judge continued: "He seems to have managed to justify this to himself which may in a general sense be understandable but hardly meritorious".
