A judge has ordered the return of ten silver centenarian commemorative coins and cheques issued to the deceased father-in-law of convicted fraudster Margaret Bergin - to President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin.
In November last year, 73-year-old Margaret Bergin of Fairfield House in Mountrath, Co Laois, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, with the final three and a half suspended for falsely claiming her dead father in law's pension for over 28 years.
In total she claimed over €270,000 in pension payments, between December 1993 and February 2022.
Ms Bergin had pleaded guilty to ten sample counts of theft and five sample counts of larceny arising from fraudulently claiming the State pension of John Bergin, who died in 1993 aged 82.
At a sitting in Portlaoise District Court, Judge Andrew Cody directed the return of ten commemorative coins, which were issued to John Bergin from his 100th birthday onwards, to Áras an Uachtaráin.
He also said the accompanying cheques and letters from the President should also be returned to their rightful owner, the office of the President of Ireland.
Judge Cody told the court that the tradition by which centenarians receive what is described as a bounty goes back to the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, in the 1940s.
"People who have reached their 100th birthday receive a gift from the State of €2,540, a letter from the President of Ireland, wishing them a happy birthday and congratulating them for their longevity and a special commemorative coin," said Judge Cody.
"Similar gifts and letters are sent on their 101st and every subsequent birthday," he said.
He told the court that the case only came to light when an amateur genealogist by the name of Mr McCoy was undertaking research and discovered that there was a person purportedly living in Laois by the name of John Bergin who was reputedly 110 years of age and contacted the office of the President to inquire about their records relating to the late John Bergin and the Centenarian Bounty.
Judge Cody said gardaí were subsequently alerted and they conducted a search of the Bergin home and found the ten silver centenarian coins, the letters from the President and the ten centenarian bounty cheques in a handbag belonging to Margret Bergin.
He said Margaret Bergin was arrested and acknowledged she had claimed the pension falsely or that she had signed documents in the name of the late Mr John Bergin.
Judge Cody said while Margret Bergin received a sentence for social welfare fraud, she was not prosecuted for any offence involving the centenarian's letters, cheques or coins and these were not the subject matter of any criminal prosecution.
He told Portlaoise District Court that in his view the responsibility for dealing with any correspondence arriving to any household decades after a person has passed away rests with their next of kin, living at that address, and in this case that is Mr Bergin's son Seamus.
Judge Cody said Seamus Bergin continued for ten years to accept the coins, cheques and letters without ever alerting the President's office or returning them to their rightful owner.
He said he was satisfied that the medals were in the possession of Seamus Bergin and or Margaret Bergin as a result of "deliberate and repeated fraud" and they "have no rightful claim whatsoever on the medals, letters and coins".
He ordered their return to "their rightful owner, the office of the President of Ireland".
Sergeant JJ Kirby told judge Andrew Cody that he will ensure that is done.
