ALLEGATIONS that an elderly Catholic priest living in the United States claimed his father's Royal Irish Constabulary pension for 10 years after his death are being investigated by the Department of Finance.
The priest, a native of Co Cavan, is alleged to have collected between £30,000 and £35,000 following the death of his father, who was in receipt of an RIC pension since 1923. His father would be aged 102 if he were still alive.
The RIC was disbanded in 1922.
A Department of Finance spokesman said it was trying to establish the death of the pensioner through contact with the American authorities.
The alleged fraud was uncovered when uncashed RIC pension cheques made out to the priest's father were returned to the Department.
The cheques were sent back by a nun at the charity in the US where the priest is based. She was opening his post while he was ill. She posted the cheques to Ireland and informed the Department that the former RIC officer had passed away a decade ago and that the elderly priest was sick.
It is alleged that the priest wrote to the Department of Finance saying he and his father had moved to the United States and requested that the cheques be redirected.