Couple who fraudulently claimed over €114,000 in social welfare payments jailed for 18 months

By Sonya McLean

A couple who fraudulently claimed over €114,000 in social welfare payments by falsely claiming that the man was not working have each been jailed for 18 months.

Cristan Turbat (39) worked for a construction company under his brother-in-law’s name while his wife Dorina Turbat (41) applied for job seeker’s allowance after claiming that her husband was out of work.

Dorina also claimed working family payment and rent supplement that she was not entitled to.

The Turbats, of Moyglare Village, Maynooth, Kildare, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sample charges which were representative of an indictment of over 570 charges – representing an offending period of April 2017 to January 2019.

Cristan Turbat pleaded guilty to 10 charges of stealing various amounts of cash from the Department of Social Protection and one charge of making a false statement on dates between May 2017 and February 2019.

Dorina Turbat pleaded guilty to 10 similar charges of theft and one of making a false statement from April 2017 to January 2019.

The court heard that these charges were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions on the basis of full facts.

Michael McMahon (47) of Roosevelt Cottages, Navan Road, was previously given a 14-month suspended sentence after he admitted that as the employer of Cristan Turbat, with his construction company, he was aware that Turbat was working under a false identity.

The sentence was suspended in full on the condition that McMahon repay the Department of Social Protection the total amount of job seekers allowance which had been fraudulently claimed by the Turbats.

McMahon had pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting Cristan Turbat to knowingly making a statement or representation for the purpose of obtaining an entitlement of a benefit for himself or another and a charge of knowingly make a false statement on dates between February 1, 2015 and January 31, 2019.

Garda Shane Devereux told George Burns BL, prosecuting, that €114,565 was claimed through social welfare by Dorina Turbat which she was not entitled to claim because Cristan Turbat was working under a false identity.

Dorina initially applied for job seekers allowance but was told she could not claim for such a payment while her husband was working.

She then successfully re-applied for the benefit when Cristan started working under the false identity.

She also claimed the working family payment and rent supplement.

Gardaí were tipped off and the investigation led a to a search of the Turbats’ home, during which €21,350 was found.

This cash will later be confiscated and forfeited to the State.

Gardaí also spoke to clients of Michael McMahon and they identified Cristan Turbat as one of the workers who had been working on their home renovations.

Cristan Turbat later made no admissions to gardaí following his arrest. Dorian Turbat never came to the garda station as arranged and it was discovered that she had returned to Romania.

She was later extradited back to Ireland on foot of a European Arrest warrant.

Gda Devereux confirmed that €97 per week is being directly deducted from the couple’s current wages since September this year, to reimburse the State.

Gda Devereux agreed with Desmond Dockery SC, defending both Cristan and Dorina Turbat, that Michael McMahon was previously been given a 14-month suspended sentence.

The sentence was suspended on the condition that he pay back the €55,215 which had been taken fraudulently in job seekers allowance.

The court heard that there is a total of €34,490 outstanding but with the €21,350 which was found in the Turbats’ home following the garda raid, the final balance due is just over €13,000, Mr Dockery told the court.

Mr Dockery asked Judge Martin Nolan to accept that his client co-operated with the extradition process and both have been complying with all their bail terms since.

It was accepted that that they have no previous convictions and have not come to garda attention since.

They have a 12-year-old son who is currently living in Romania with his grandparents.

Mr Dockery said there were favourable probation reports before the courts which put the couple at a low risk of re-offending.

Counsel acknowledged that it was “a deliberate, deceitful, pre-meditated and well-planned course of deception” and both his clients accepts that they were fully involved.

He said they intend to repay all the money they fraudulently obtained and that between them, they have the funds to repay the total amount that is still outstanding to the State.

Mr Dockery said the couple were “hard pressed for money” in 2014 and once they started the fraud they got comfortable with the money coming in and were not prepared to let it go.

Judge Martin Nolan said both were involved in a scheme to defraud social welfare.

He said for the system to be effective it must be user friendly and “easily accessible”.

He said this can lead to a gap that can be exploited and taken advantage of.

Judge Nolan said the couple conspired together to defraud the State and they conducted this scheme over a long period of time.

He said they “both must suffer” for their crimes.

He set a headline sentence of three years, which he reduced to 18 months taking into account the mitigating features which he said included the couple’s level of co-operation with the garda investigation, their pleas of guilty and expression of remorse.

“One is as bad as the other and one is as good as the other,” Judge Nolan commented before he jailed both Dorian and Cristan Turbat for 18 months.