A CIVIL servant died only two days after the State discovered he had fraudulently paid himself almost €200,000 in home tuition grants, the High Court heard yesterday.
Arthur Kelly, an assistant principal officer in the personnel section of the Department of Education and Science, told the court that Co Westmeath native Cathal Wynne had wrongfully procured 49 payment orders worth €195,345.
The court heard that Wynne was an executive officer in the department’s special education unit in Athlone.
Mr Justice Bryan McMahon heard that Wynne, Fairfields, Toorphelim, Moate, Co Westmeath, had made home tuition grant cheques payable to fictitious recipients.
He then transferred the money for his own use, the court was told yesterday.
Mr Kelly stated in an affidavit that Wynne had died on May 24th, 2006.
This was less than a week after the payments had come to light, the court heard.
The fraudulent payments had been discovered as a result of queries which had been raised by staff at the Allied Irish Bank in Tullamore.
Counsel for the department said that it wished to issue proceedings against the estate of Mr Wynne in a bid to recover the monies.
The court was told that the payments had come to light on May 18th, 2006, and had been under investigation since.
It was known the payments had been made into accounts of various recipients or to fictitious people at addresses known to the deceased man.
He said it was not known if Mr Wynne had made a will.
The court was told that the Department of Education was seeking the appointment of Patrick Donaghy, solicitor, Dame Street, Dublin, as administrator ad litem.
Mr Donaghy would then take out a grant of probate regarding administration of his estate.
Counsel said the department was obliged to issue legal proceedings on or before May 24th, the second anniversary of Mr Wynne’s death, and there was insufficient time to make detailed inquiries regarding a will.
The court was told that the results of a postmortem on Mr Wynne’s body had not yet been released.
Moreover, the coroner for Co Offaly had been unable to conduct an inquest pending the issuing of the results of the postmortem.
Judge McMahon appointed Mr Donaghy to take out a grant of probate and administer Mr Wynne’s estate.