A half-a-million euro scam carried out by a 59-year-old Cork man who claimed pensions for his dead parents for over three decades was uncovered when he tried to claim the Centenarian Bounty.
The bounty is awarded by the State when a pensioner reaches the age of 100 years.
Donal ("Don") O'Callaghan, of Churchfield Green, Churchfield in Cork city, pleaded guilty last October to 73 charges of theft and forgery in relation to claiming payments totalling €527,000 in the names of his deceased parents, Donald and Eileen, between 1987 and 2019.
At his sentencing hearing today at the Circuit Criminal Court in Cork, investigating garda Michael Nagle, who is attached to the Department of Social Protection, described it as being, to his knowledge, the largest and longest running known case of welfare fraud in State history.
Garda Nagle told Judge Helen Boyle that in July 2020 a social welfare inspector received notification that a pensioner in the locality, Donald O'Callaghan, of Churchfield Green, was due to reach 100 years of age, which would normally result in the issuing of a congratulatory letter from the President, as well as a cheque for €2,540.
Because of the Covid pandemic the inspector could not call to the house to verify the details, so she rang and spoke with O'Callaghan who confirmed his father was willing to accept the President's payment, so she forwarded a questionaire to be completed.
However, when she could not confirm Donald O'Callaghan's details as was routine, and the public health nurse had no record of him, she alerted Garda Nagle.
Garda Nagle then undertook an extensive trawl of public services and records in an effort to find death certificates for the couple, but was unsuccessful.
However, following unsuccessful checks of parish records and funeral homes, he began checking local cemeteries.
In September 2020, he located Eileen O'Callaghan's grave at Tory Top Road cemetery. She had died 43 years ago in 1979, aged 57. He located her husband's grave in Douglas cemetery. He died in 1987, aged 68 years.
Garda Nagle told the court that when O'Callaghan's father died in 1987, Don O'Callaghan successfully claimed his parents' pensions. Although she had died eight years earlier, his father had himself been claiming his wife's pension.
O'Callaghan was arrested on 9 October 2020 following a surveillance operation, during which he claimed the fortnightly pension payment of €961.60 at the GPO in Cork using a Public Services Card.
He admitted the offences to gardaí and during a follow-up search at his home €9,800 in cash was found.
Over the years, O'Callaghan fraudulently completed documentation to support the claims, including using the photograph of an elderly man he knew, in his application for a Public Services Card for his father.
Describing it as an extraordinary case, O'Callaghan's defence counsel Ray Boland SC said his client had difficulties with gambling and had felt a "huge sense of relief when he was arrested".
He asked that Judge Boyle when sentencing take into account O'Callaghan's guilty plea and that he had fully cooperated with gardaí, who agreed he had been "easy to deal with".
While there had been a lot of foreign travel over the years to visit his wife and child in Thailand, there were no trappings of wealth, and he still lived in his parents' house, Mr Boland said.
Judge Boyle said she wanted to take time to read the reports from the Probation Service and a psychotherapist and she adjourned sentencing in the case until tomorrow morning.
