A 59-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for claiming pensions for his dead mother and father for 33 years, defrauding the State of over €500,000.

Father-of-one Donal (Don) O’Callaghan’s deceit was only revealed in 2020 when the Centenary Bounty cheque was offered to his 100-year-old father who had in fact been dead for over three decades.

His fraudulent claims were the largest and longest-running cases of welfare fraud in the history of the State.

If his father Donald had been alive, he would have received a gift from the state of €2,540 and a special message from President Michael D Higgins.

O’Callaghan, of Churchfield Green, Churchfield, Co Cork, claimed the pensions of his parents Donald and Eileen from 1987 to 2020. Donald O’Callaghan Senior died in 1987 whilst Eileen passed away in 1979.

The facts of the case were outlined to Judge Helen Boyle at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday. She reserved her position overnight.

This morning at the sentencing hearing, the judge said that O’Callaghan was making sincere efforts to address his chronic gambling problem.

The gambling impacts every aspect of your life. You are aware you have to deal with your chronic gambling addiction. Your life involved going to the bookies at noon and staying until at least noon. You use gambling to escape problems. You have made early steps to deal with that gambling addiction. I accept you are motivated to deal with your gambling problem.

The judge also spoke of the adverse childhood experiences of O’Callaghan. He lost his mother as a teen and his father passed away when he was 24.

The judge said that the offence was in the “upper range of serious”.

“The old-age pension is a social contract. By your actions, the pension pool has been deprived of €500,000,” she said.

“You lied to the (social welfare) inspector over the phone about your father reaching a hundred. You filled out forms. You attended in person to fill out forms.”

She said O’Callaghan had taken a picture of an elderly man he knew in order to obtain a photo ID in his father’s name for the Public Services Card.

Taking his lack of previous convictions into account and his plea of guilty and efforts to address his gambling, she jailed him for four-and-a-half years suspending the final year of the sentence.

Evidence

Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday heard evidence from Garda Michael Nagle who investigated the case.

During the detailed garda probe, he found that O’Callaghan’s father had also been claiming the pension for his dead wife even though she passed away eight years before he did.

The garda said that in July 2020 a social welfare inspector became aware that a person named Donald O’Callaghan was due to reach 100 years of age and therefore was entitled to the President’s Bounty.

Their understanding was that Mr and Mrs O’Callaghan were in receipt of a State pension being paid to Donal – with Eileen included on the same pension as opposed to two separate pensions. The pensions were being collected at the GPO in Cork.

Normal practice is for the inspector to call to the home of the person due to receive the special Presidential payment but because of Covid, a phonecall was made to the house.

The defendant Don O’Callaghan answered and confirmed that he lived at the house in Churchfield with his parents. He also said his father was willing to accept the payment.

O’Callaghan filled out all of the paperwork required to receive the bounty payment.

However, the inspector wasn’t able to confirm any details through the normal channels such as the public health nurse. He contacted local GPs and home help services but nobody seemed to be familiar with Donald and Eileen O’Callaghan.

The garda did a trawl of records in a bid to find death certificates but this proved unsuccessful. His suspicions raised, he began checking cemeteries in Cork.

He found both graves in the city. Eileen’s grave was at Tory Top Road cemetery. She died aged 57 in 1979. He located Donald’s grave in Douglas cemetery. He was 68 when he passed away in 1987.

O’Callaghan, who has a child in Thailand where he frequently went on holiday, was arrested on 9 October 2020 following a surveillance operation in the GPO in Cork.

He claimed the fortnightly pension payment of €961.60 at the post office using a Public Services Card.

He readily admitted the offences to gardaí. Defending barrister Ray Boland SC said that being uncovered was a relief to O’Callaghan whom he claimed had difficulties with gambling. The bookies stopped him from gambling on-site when the allegations emerged.

Over the years he completed documents to support the claims. In June 2014 a form was posted out to the O’Callaghan home regarding the completion of a Public Services Card. Initially, the card could be completed by post.

O’Callaghan sent off a picture of his late father which didn’t meet the criteria for the card. He ended up using the photograph of a man he knew in order to qualify for the card.

At one point, O’Callaghan was receiving €700 per week when the pension payments were combined with his claims for Job Seekers’ Allowance, which the court heard that he had also claimed for over thirty years.

He was the official collector of the two pensions being claimed with the basis for him collecting being that Donald O’Callaghan was supposedly having difficulties with walking to the post office.

An ‘extraordinary case’

Defence counsel Ray Boland, SC, said that it was “an extraordinary case”.

“He took a chance and when he wasn’t caught he just kept going. He seized the opportunity,” counsel said.

He said that his client lived in the house he grew up in and had no trappings of wealth. He claimed that O’Callaghan had a chronic gambling addiction which he was addressing.

O’Callaghan was 24 years old when his father passed away in 1987. Garda Nagle said that O’Callaghan noticed the pension book in the house.

He attempted to collect it the following week and when successful he continued throughout the years with the completion of various documents. His father was collecting a pension also for his dead wife. His father must have applied for a joint pension. It was already in place.

He added that his client experienced “a huge sense of relief” when he was caught” as he had lived in fear of being found out.

Three eligibility certificates were sent to the house to be completed in 1996, 2013 and 2017. The garda said these certificates were returned completed and signed appearing to have been submitted by Donald O’Callaghan but instead signed by his son Don.

Over the years, O’Callaghan fraudulently claimed the pensions on almost 1,700 occasions and a total of €527,000 was collected.

Gardaí recovered just under €11,000 of the funds taken with €9,800 found at his home and €961 seized from the defendant on the day of his arrest.

O’Callaghan pleaded guilty to 73 sample counts of social welfare fraud. 68 counts relate to theft and five relate to false documentation in support of the claims.