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Gardaí suspects that there are other cases of gangs defrauding State Covid unemployment payments after arresting a key target in Cork.
The suspect, a West African citizen, is suspected of stealing more than € 165,000 from the state through more than 70 bogus pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) applications.
Gardaí believes that most, if not all, of the € 165,000 is gone and will not be recovered, and suspects that other people were involved in the scam.
A Garda statement said a warning was issued to the public last June in connection with a phishing email that allegedly came from the Court Service, where people were told they had been selected for jury duty.
“More than 70 people responded to this fraudulent message and provided personal information,” he said.
He said the Gardaí, attached to the Department of Labor Affairs and Social Protection, together with the Garda National Office for Economic Crimes and the local Gardaí in Cork, identified and arrested a suspect on Tuesday.
He was detained under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at Midleton Garda Station and could be detained for up to 24 hours.
Gardaí from the city and county of Cork participated in the operation. Gardaí is understood to have collected CCTV footage as part of their investigation.
“The question is how much of this is happening that we don’t know about,” said a source. “We suspect there are more.
“We ran into some different ones in the last few months that people had no idea what was going on.
The investigation is believed to have uncovered the relative ease of defrauding the PUP scheme once the scammers have personal data, including PPS numbers.
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