By Jessica Magee and Sonya McLean
A man who used his friend’s identity to steal from the State in social welfare fraud after his friend moved to Thailand has been jailed for 18 months.
Noel Ward (59), of Dolmen Way, Ballymun, was homeless at the time when he made a plan with his friend, now deceased, to claim multiple social welfare benefits using the friend’s PPS number.
Ward fraudulently claimed a total of €109,235 over a ten-year period, of which he lodged €100 a week into his friend’s bank account.
At an earlier hearing last week, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Ward transferred about €64,000 into the AIB account of his friend Patrick Rooney, who died last December in Thailand.
Ward pleaded guilty to two charges of using a false instrument, including a driving licence, and six counts of theft from the State, on dates between May 2008 and August 2019.
Among the payments Ward fraudulently claimed were Jobseekers’ Benefit, Disability Benefit, Jobseekers’ Allowance, Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance and Rent Allowance.
Ward has been making repayments to the State since 2017, the court heard, including a lump sum of €20,000 paid over earlier this month.
The State remains at a loss of about €15,000 but Ward is expected to have this repaid within the next four years.
Judge Orla Crowe said it had been a deliberate fraud perpetrated over the course of ten years.
She said it was a sophisticated fraud that involved two different identities and it was only due to the efforts of third parties that the crime was uncovered.
The judge said notwithstanding the mitigating factors, including the fact that Ward is the sole carer for his partner, who is a wheelchair user, “a custodial component” to the sentence is required.
She set a headline sentence of five years before she imposed a term of three years.
Judge Crowe suspended the final 18 months of the sentence having take into account other mitigating factors including the fact that Ward has repaid all but €15,000 of the total cash he had stolen from “the public purse”.
At the end of the sentence hearing, a woman spoke from the body of the court – “Sorry Judge, this woman is in a wheelchair who is going to take care of her and take her home”.
Garda Louise Keane told David Perry BL, prosecuting, at the previous hearing last week, that gardaí believe the late Mr Rooney was complicit in the abuse of his PPS number.
Gda Keane said that between May 2008 and July 2012, Ward claimed Jobseekers’ Allowance totalling €41,861 in the name of Patrick Rooney.
Then from July 2012 to August 2018, Ward took up employment with two companies, using Mr Rooney’s name and PPS number.
During this time, Ward claimed a raft of unemployment benefits, including Rent Allowance and Disability allowance, in his own name.
In total, he fraudulently claimed €56,590 in his own name, the court heard.
His final claim was illness benefit in Mr Rooney’s name from January to March 2017, to the tune of €783.
Ward used a false driving licence in the name of Mr Rooney, but with his own genuine photo attached.
The fraud came to light after Ward applied to the Department of Social Protection for Disability Allowance, submitting Ulster Bank statements showing his weekly wages from his then employer, Musgraves Wholesale Partners.
When a department inspector queried where the money was from, Ward said his cousin Mr Rooney was using his bank account to receive his wages.
The inspector visited Musgraves who said that Ward had been working for them but went by the name of Patrick Rooney.
The court heard that Mr Rooney lived in Thailand from late 2008 until his death last year.
Gardaí searched Ward’s home in July 2018 and found the fake driving licence in Mr Rooney’s name.
On his arrest, Ward made full admissions to gardaí and admitted he had been claiming social welfare benefits in Mr Rooney’s name, and later working under Mr Rooney’s identity and claiming benefits in his own name.
Ward told gardaí that his friend Mr Rooney, a recovering alcoholic, had offered him a place to stay when he was homeless in 2008.
When Mr Rooney moved to Thailand, Ward agreed to collect social welfare for him.
The court heard that Ward was living at the address at Dolmen Way but claiming rent allowance on a different property.
When asked about the false driving licence, Ward told gardaí he thought he got that in a pub about 11 years ago.
“I can’t remember everything,” Ward told gardaí.
Ward has one previous conviction for drunken driving in 2008.
He has not come to garda attention since these offences, the court heard.
Ward has set up a direct debit of €80 a week to the Department of Social Protection.
Gda Keane agreed with Mark Lynam SC, defending, that both Ward and Mr Rooney were living a “somewhat chaotic” life at the time the offences began.
Counsel said that when Mr Rooney left for Thailand, he gave Ward somewhere to live, and as a quid pro quo, Ward transferred his social welfare money to him over a long period.
Mr Lynam gave the court a letter from a GP confirming Ward’s history of depression and anxiety.
Counsel said Ward got into the deception “at a low point, when he was homeless and desperate,” but had never intended for it to carry on so long.
A letter from Ward’s current employer where he has been working since 2021 spoke highly of him as a very good worker.
Mr Lynam said Ward has overcome his alcohol problem and has been sole carer to his partner for the last six years.
Ward is not claiming Carers’ Allowance though he is entitled to do so, the court heard.
Letters were also submitted from Ward and from his daughter, who said she had never seen her father so “broken and remorseful”.
Counsel said Ward has taken out a loan of €15,000 while his partner has taken out a loan of €5,000 in order to repay the State.
“He’s doing his very best to pay it back,” Mr Lynam said of Ward.