Man who commuted from Thailand to claim €248k in welfare scam jailed

AN IRISHMAN who lived in Thailand and returned home every three months, using a series of different names to fraudulently claim €248,000 in welfare payments over an eight-year period, has been jailed for 12-and-a-half years.

Paul Murray, 63, of no fixed abode, said he carried out what the court heard was an audacious and breathtaking crime because the money was “easy to access”.

At Mullingar District court yesterday, Judge Anthony Kennedy imposed a six-month sentence for each of 25 sample theft charges and a concurrent sentence of three years for possession of a false passport.

He said Murray had “shamelessly cheated the system” with “dizzying execution and control, never making a mistake” in a “planned, premeditated campaign”, and commended gardaí and social welfare staff for their meticulous investigation.

In his seven bank accounts, only €11,000 remains of the money which Murray used to fund international travel. The court heard he also received a €37,000 inheritance while he was lodging fake claims between 2002 and 2010.

He was living in Thailand but returned here every three months to claim jobseeker’s allowance. He also fraudulently claimed disability and supplementary welfare allowances, all in a number of border and midland counties.

Murray initially claimed disability allowance in 2005 when he was diagnosed with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, but when he saw how easy it was to access the system, he used false documents to make further claims.

Murray was caught when his brother Patrick in Australia innocently applied for the passport which Paul had already taken out in his name, tipping off passport officials who contacted the Department of Social Protection.

Despite being warned that he’d be in trouble, he returned home to sign on in Cavan on October 19 last where Detective Garda Peter Kelly was waiting for him.

“You’ve caught me red-handed,” he told the officer and showed him where around 50 supporting documents, many of them false, were hidden in his van.

Murray served time in Britain in 1994 for similar offences there to the total of £30,000.

At one point during proceedings, Judge Kennedy stopped technical evidence to say he needed “eyes in the back of my head” to keep up with what he called a “multifaceted fraudster”. He also noted there was no plan to return money and refused leave to appeal the sentence.