Florist is jailed for stealing from an American customer and social welfare fraud

By Sonya McLean

A florist who stole a thousand dollars from an American woman after he recorded her card details has been jailed for theft and social welfare fraud.

Arthur Batistis (51) of Thomas Hand Street, Skerries, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to theft and dishonestly by deception inducing the Department of Social Protection to pay both jobseeker’s allowance and the pandemic unemployment payment on dates between January and May 2022.

The court heard that Batistis claimed a total of €17,000 in pandemic unemployment payment between January and November 2021 when he was not entitled to do so and also received just over €10,000 in jobseekers allowance between November 2021 and February 2022.

Garda Paul Kelly told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that an American customer had previously given her card details to Batistis over the phone in order to purchase flowers but Batistis retained the card information.

He then processed a number of unauthorised payments on the card, as legitimate sales and paid himself the cash.

The woman contacted gardaí when she noticed the payments and it was while gardaí were investigating this theft that they became aware of the fact that Batistis had been fraudulently claiming the social welfare payments.

Officers analysed the accounts of the florist and established that Batistis would not have qualified for either payment as he was receiving a sufficient income.

He was arrested in October 2022 and made admissions. A victim impact statement was prepared for court but not read out.

Batistis has no previous convictions and has not come to garda attention since.

Batistis moved to Ireland in 2000 and set up a florist business in 2015.

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that he co-operated with the garda investigation, had no criminal record and had a good work history.

He said the theft was “reprehensible” as Batistis had secured the card details on the basis of the trust a customer placed in him.

Judge Nolan said Batistis took advantage of the Covid-19 payment scheme that had been introduced as a matter of urgency.

He said it worked on the basis of trusting people not to apply unless it was necessary.

“He took advantage of a situation he should not have,” the judge commented before he imposed a ten-month prison term.