Serial fraudster Samantha Cookes has been sentenced to three years in prison for social welfare fraud and theft over four years when she pretended she had Huntington’s disease.
Judge Ronan Munro said she conducted a “carefully orchestrated plan” to take money from the State.
Cookes had also “cynically exploited” sympathy towards people with Huntington’s disease, he said as he handed down the sentence at Tralee Circuit Court on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old last month pleaded guilty to two counts of deception and 16 sample theft charges. The total involved was €60,334.35. The money was taken initially via supplementary welfare payments and then under disability allowance between February 28th, 2020 and June 12th last.
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In her fraudulent claim, Cookes maintained she was suffering from a debilitating illness that would ultimately be terminal.
Judge Munro imposed a four-year sentence but suspended the final year for what he said was a “deliberate fraud over a protracted period of time”.
He said the fraud would have been discovered far quicker had it not been for the Covid-19 pandemic. This was an abuse of the public system and of genuine claimants, he said.
The judge said Cookes wrote to him claiming to be a victim of psychosis, but he would not accept a self-diagnosis.
Cookes has five previous convictions for similar offences, including posing as a psychologist and taking money for a children’s trip to Lapland that never happened, he said.
However, he noted that she entered an early guilty plea in this instance.
He backdated the sentence to July of last year as Cookes has been in prison since was arrested then outside a post office in Tralee.
Previously, the court heard Cookes told the department in February 2020 that she had been diagnosed with Huntington’s disease and epilepsy. She claimed the disease was life-limiting and would prove terminal, but she was unable to see a neurologist because of Covid-19 restrictions.
She drew 74 payments totalling €17,747 in supplementary welfare payments, the court heard.
Prosecuting barrister Tom Rice, instructed by State solicitor Diane Reidy, said Cookes accused the department of “major discrimination” when it sought certification of her illness.
She wrote letters of complaint saying she was no longer able to hold a pen and could not access support because of pandemic rules.
Cookes led a GP into filling out a form in 2020 saying she had previously been diagnosed with the disease. She led the doctor to believe she was struggling to grip things, or to use the stairs or shower, and that her balance was affected.
“On face value it all looked very plausible and the disability allowance was awarded,” Mr Rice said.
However, the deception quickly unravelled after gardaí, alerted by department officers, obtained her medical records. Cookes failed to turn up for scans and appointments ordered by her GP and did not have genetic testing for her supposed condition.
Cooke’s barrister, Richard Liston, previously said a “snowball of deception became an avalanche” during Covid times. His client offered an apology to the doctor and the department.
