Sentencing Of Laois Woman Who Defrauded State By €270k Adjourned

Thursday, 15 February 2024 07:50

The fraudulent claiming of her dead father's pension triggered a search for the country's oldest man.

The sentencing of a Laois woman whose fraudulent claiming of her dead father’s pension triggered a search for Ireland’s oldest man has been adjourned after a court heard she had recently been admitted to hospital.

69-year-old Margaret Bergin of Fairfield House, Mountrath, had pleaded guilty to ten sample counts of theft and five sample counts of larceny at an earlier sitting of Portlaoise Circuit Criminal Court last year.

The court heard Ms. Bergin had defrauded the State by over €270,000 by falsely claiming the pension of her dead father for almost 30 years.

The offences were only detected after a researcher had checked out the background of a 110-year-old male who was claiming a welfare benefit.

Counsel for Ms. Bergin, Suzanne Dooner BL told the court on Wednesday that her client who was due to be sentenced for the offences was not in attendance as she had been admitted to the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise the previous night.

Ms Dooner said the accused had 'heart problems.'

The sum of money involved in the fraud which was carried out over a 29-year period up to February 25, 2022 amounted to €271,046.

The defendant had falsely claimed the non-contributory State pension of her father, John Bergin, after he was deceased.

The largest amount claimed in a single year was €12,766 in 2018.

An investigation into the fraud was initiated after an amateur gerontologist contacted Áras an Uachtaráin to enquire about records which indicated a 110-year-old man was living in Laois.

The researcher, who was suspicious of the individual’s details, believed the claimant’s birth date of July 2, 1911 would have made him Ireland’s oldest man.

He subsequently contacted the Department of Social Protection whose officials uncovered the fraud after visiting Bergin’s home in Mountrath.

Judge Keenan Johnson adjourned the case but said he would go ahead with the sentence hearing later this week unless he received medical reports about Bergin’s condition.