A 35-year-old woman who faked her own death to avoid facing theft and fraud charges after stealing over €70,000 and nine mobile phones has been jailed for three years.
Amy McAuley, of Connagh, Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford, pleaded guilty to submitting a false death notification form to Wexford County Council on 19 January 2023.
The mother of a young child also admitted forging a medical certificate, using it, perverting the course of justice, five counts of theft and one count of perverting the course of justice between 2018 and 2023.
She previously received a suspended sentence in 2015 for stealing €111,000 from a former employer.
Amy McAuley used forged documentation and secured a €10,000 loan from KBC bank in 2018 which she never paid back.
She then tried to get another €5,000 but was refused and was subsequently charged with theft and fraud offences and sent for trial.
Gardaí then contacted McAuley in May 2021 to question her about the theft of nine mobile phones, which she had ordered from Three Ireland in July 2020.
She told them she was not well and provided a forged medical report.
McAuley subsequently called them twice, pretending to be "Winnie" her own sister, and told them she was in treatment.
She also forged a medical report from the Rotunda Hospital.
Then in January 2023, she submitted a false death notification form to Wexford County Council with death certificates later issued in her name in English and Irish.
As a result, her trial for stealing the €10,000 did not go ahead that month because she was believed to be dead.
Three death notices were also put up on RIP.ie, one said she died in France, another that she had died in Belfast and a third included details of a funeral and cremation and a fictional undertaker.
One was removed after her mother told RIP.ie she was not dead.
She also rang in the name of "Winnie," a Northern Ireland company she had been working for to try to claim a €96,000 death in service benefit.
The company paid €9,000 into her account as a goodwill gesture which was never repaid.
When working as an assistant accountant for another company, she transferred approximately €49,100 to her account in 2015. This money has never been repaid to her then-employer.
A Tipperary co-op also paid around €6,500 to McAuley's account and she later forwarded on two payments totalling €6,550 to her then employer.
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When questioned by gardaí, McAuley admitted wrongdoing and said her husband was not involved.
She told them she knew she was in trouble again and believed everything would be okay if she was dead because she could be with her young child.
She also said she could not face going to court.
She has four previous convictions for theft and deception offences, including two years, suspended for ten years in November 2015, for the theft of just under €111,000 from a former employer. She repaid €30,000.
Her defence counsel Rebecca Smith said Ms McAuley had acted alone, and there were no indications she had been living a lavish lifestyle.
She had she said been been living a "crazy, chaotic existence" but this has now stabilised.
She married in 2022, has a young child and is currently pregnant.
Judge Orla Crowe said the offences involved planning over a protracted period of time and a significant amount of money.
She described the impersonations of fake people and the faking of her own death as "egregious" and sentenced McAuley to four years in prison with the final year suspended.
Additional reporting CCC Nuacht
