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Gardaí in Cork arrested a 57-year-old man for questioning him about a 500,000-euro old-age pension fraud after he continued to collect payments every week for his deceased parents for about 30 years on Friday.
Officials with the Department of Labor Affairs and Social Protection became suspicious when the man was asked to provide proof that his father was alive to qualify for the Centennial Reward.
The Centenarian’s Bounty involves a 100-year-old man receiving a payment of € 2,540 and a letter of congratulations signed by President Michael D Higgins on his birthday once the department is satisfied with the veracity of the claim.
Detectives arrested the man from the north side of Cork shortly after 9 a.m. Friday when he went to collect pension payments from his deceased father and mother at the general post office on Oliver Plunkett Street in downtown. Cork.
33 years
The man was arrested and taken for questioning to Bridewell Garda Police Station, where he was detained under article 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows the gardaí to hold suspects for up to 24 hours.
Gardaí believes that the man continued to collect his father’s pension every week at the GPO after the pensioner’s death in 1987 and that he also continued to collect his mother’s pension after she passed away a few years later.
Gardaí believes the man raised approximately € 520,000 in total in pension fraud which, dating back some 33 years, is believed to be one of the longest of its kind discovered in the state’s history.
The man’s arrest followed a joint investigation by An Garda Síochána and the department, which notified gardaí of suspicions about the man’s allegations. The man was released without charge on Friday night. A Garda spokeswoman said a file would be prepared for the Director of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and that investigations were ongoing.
North side of Cork
Gardaí and department officials conducted a follow-up search of the man’s family home on the north side of Cork on Friday and seized some 9,800 euros in cash, which they believe are the proceeds of their alleged fraud.
Det Insp Danny Coholan from Anglesea Street Garda Station said: “Gardaí and the Department of Labor Affairs and Social Protection have a longstanding relationship that aims to target those who try to defraud the state.”
Three years ago, a Dublin man was jailed for 18 months after admitting to stealing nearly € 160,000 in profits.
Brian Bobey, of Walkinstown Parade in Dublin, started claiming his mother’s pension after her death in May 1997 and was only caught in October 2013 when the then Department of Social Welfare launched an investigation.
Bobey, then 64, offered to return the money at a rate of 50 euros a week, but Judge Patricia Ryan of the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jailed him for 18 months after hearing that it would take him 63 years to pay the fee. debt at that rate.
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