A 59-year-old Cork man has been jailed for 3½ years for claiming pensions for his dead parents for 33 years and defrauding the State of more than €500,000.
Donal (Don) O'Callaghan, of Churchfield Green, Churchfield, claimed the pensions of his parents Donald and Eileen from 1987 to 2020. His father died in 1987, eight years after his mother's death in 1979.
O’Callaghan fraudulently claimed the pensions on almost 1,700 occasions and a total of €527,000 was collected.
He pleaded guilty to 73 sample counts of social welfare fraud. A total of 68 counts relate to theft and five relate to false documentation in support of the claims.
O’Callaghan’s crime was uncovered in 2020 when a Centenary Bounty cheque of €2,540 was offered to his father, who would have been 100 years old that year.
It was one of the largest and longest running cases of welfare fraud in the history of the State.
The facts of the case were outlined to Judge Helen Boyle at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday. She reserved her position overnight.
At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Judge Boyle said O’Callaghan was making sincere efforts to address his chronic gambling problem.
“The gambling impacts every aspect of your life. You are aware you have to deal with your chronic gambling addiction. Your life involved going to the bookies at noon and staying until at least 6pm,” she said. “You use gambling to escape problems. You have made early steps to deal with that gambling addiction. I accept you are motivated to deal with your gambling problem.”
Judge Boyle also spoke of the adverse childhood experiences of O’Callaghan, noting he lost his mother as a teen and his father when he was 24.
She said the offence was in the “upper range of serious.”
“By your actions the pension pool has been deprived of €500,000,” she said.
“You lied to the (social welfare) inspector over the phone about your father reaching a hundred. You filled out forms. You attended in person to fill out forms.”
She noted O’Callaghan had taken a picture of an elderly man he knew in order to obtain a photo ID in his father’s name for a Public Services Card.
Taking his lack of previous convictions in to account and his plea of guilty and efforts to address his gambling, she jailed him for four and a half years, suspending the final year of the sentence.
The court heard evidence on Tuesday from Dept Garda Michael Nagle who investigated the case.
Det Garda Nagle said that in July 2020, a social welfare inspector became aware that a person named Donald O’Callaghan was due to reach 100 years of age and therefore was entitled to the President’s Bounty.
Their understanding was that the O’Callaghans were in receipt of State pensions, which were being collected by their son at the GPO in Cork.
Normal practice is for the inspector to call to the home of the person due to receive the special payment but because of Covid, a phonecall was made. The defendant answered and confirmed that he lived at the house in Churchfield with his parents. He also said his father was willing to accept the payment.
Don O’Callaghan filled out out all of the paperwork required. However, the inspector was not able to confirm any details through the normal channels such as the public health nurse. He contacted local GPs and home help services but nobody knew the O’Callaghans.
Det Garda Nagle did a trawl of records in a bid to find death certificates but this proved unsuccessful. He then began checking cemeteries in Cork.
He found Eileen's grave at Tory Top Road cemetery. She had died in 1979, aged 57. He located Donald's grave in Douglas cemetery. He was 68 when died in 1987.
Don O'Callaghan, who has a child in Thailand where he frequently went on holiday, was arrested on October 9th, 2020 following a surveillance operation in the GPO in Cork. He had just claimed the fortnightly pension payment of €961.60 at the post office.
He admitted the offences to gardaí.
Defending barrister Ray Boland SC said that being uncovered was a relief to O’Callaghan, whom he claimed had difficulties with gambling.