A man who had cloned credit cards and also defrauded the Department of Social Welfare by claiming another man's unemployment benefit has been remanded in custody for sentence on February 15th.
Vecceslav Chitcan (31), a Moldovan, of Old Conna Wood Lawn, Bray, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three counts of possessing false credit cards on June 20th, 2001. He also admitted four counts of obtaining money from the Department of Social Welfare by forging unemployment receipts between May 22nd and June 12th, 2001.
Garda Fergal O'Flaherty told Ms Aileen Donnelly, prosecuting, that he stopped Chitcan in Dublin city centre on June 20th and arrested him in relation to a road traffic offence. While being searched, garda∅ found four credit cards in his possession in the name of other men. The cards hadn't been stolen but cloned.
Chitcan claimed he had found them but gave no explanation as to why he hadn't returned them. AIB Bank discovered that some of them had been used.
Garda O'Flaherty said garda∅ found four receipts for unemployment benefit in the name of another man, a Mr Balan, in the room Chitcan rented in Bray.
Chitcan had received sums of £164.40 four times in the previous month by presenting a forged Department of Social Welfare receipt at Bray Post Office.
He told garda∅ that he knew Mr Balan, who was out of the country for a month, and he had instructed him to claim his unemployment benefit for him.
Mr Luigi Rea, defending, said his client had applied for refugee status because he left Moldova to escape the civil war against the Russians. He arrived in October 2000 and also had a partner and a young son. Mr Rea said the offences were quite serious but there was no violence used.
He added that Chitcan was claiming the social welfare by consent but he accepted that what he had done was wrong. Judge Yvonne Murphy said she felt it was an appropriate case to order a probation report and adjourned the case until February 15th.