Jail for man who assumed dead brother's identity to claim over €93,000

A Glenties pensioner will spend two and a half years behind bars after using the identity of his dead brother to con the State out of over €93,000 in benefits.

Aidan Byrne, a 75-year-old of Ard McGill in Glenties, was before Letterkenny Circuit Court on 44 counts of theft and fraud offenses.

Byrne's brother, Anthony Joseph Byrne, died tragically when he drowned in England in 1972.

Byrne, originally from Wexford, claimed the benefits between 2015 and 2021 and was only caught when sharp passport officials spotted something amiss when he applied for a passport in his own name.

When Byrne relocated to Ireland, having emigrated to the UK in the 1960s, in 2000, he set up a bank account in the name of his dead brother. In 2001, he managed to obtain a PPS number in his brother's name from the Department of Social Protection.

A passport and birth cert in the name of the deceased was used.

In August, 2014, a photograph was uploaded to the Department of Social Protection database in the identity of Anthony Joseph Byrne.

Between June 2015 and August 2021, pension and fuel allowances totalling €83,157.20 were paid to an Ulster Bank account.

In June, 2012, Byrne obtained a medical card and availed of €10,858 worth of benefits via this method.

Detective Garda Paul Lynch told the court how Byrne's scheme was unravelled when, in 2019, he made a passport application in his own name. The passport office, Detective Garda Lynch said, spotted similarities in the image provided and that on the file of Anthony Joseph Byrne.

“They were identical,” Detective Garda Lynch said.

A search was conducted of Byrne's home and a death certificate in the name of Anthony Joseph Byrne, who died in a drowning accident in Epping in December 1972, was recovered.

Byrne was arrested and taken to Ballyshannon Garda Station. Officers seized €2,840 in cash and the sum of €16,238.66 remains frozen in an Ulster Bank account.

Byrne was interviewed once and pleaded guilty. Detective Garda Lynch said Byrne, who has no previous convictions, was fully cooperative with Gardai.

The court heard that €57,000 of the monies remain outstanding and Byrne is paying back €50 a week to the State.

In the witness box, Byrne said he had lost the respect of his three daughters and extended family. He said his only income at present was his pension.

He admitted, under questioning from his own barrister, Mr Colm Smyth SC, that he would have to 'live a considerable number of years to repay' the money.

The court heard that Byrne is a stroke survivor with cardiac concerns. 

Mr Smyth said: “This was a remarkable fall from grace for a man who worked all his life and never had any dealings with law enforcement. He is not a man of means.”

Passing sentence Judge John Aylmer placed the charges of claiming his brother’s pension and also using a medical card in his brother’s name in the mid-range of such offences.

The pension offence merited a sentence of five years before mitigation while the use of the medical card merited a sentence of three years before mitigation.

The other offences merited a sentence of two years before mitigation and were placed at the lower end of the scale by Judge Aylmer.

In mitigation, the Judge said that Byrne is a man of 75-years of age who cooperated fully and followed this with an early guilty plea. He had no previous convictions, had worked hard all his life and was suffering ill health having suffered a stroke amongst other medical conditions.

Taking all factors into consideration, including the accused’s remorse, he reduced the headline sentence from one of five years to one of three and a half years.

Judge Aylmer said he had to consider Byrne’s age, his ill health and absence of previous convictions and he further suspended the final 12 months of this sentence meaning the defendant will serve two and a half years in jail.