Mum jailed for €105k welfare fraud in Cork

A mother of four was jailed yesterday in a case where a jury found her guilty of fraudulently claiming €105,000 in social welfare in Cork over a six-year period.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a sentence of two years, with the final 18 months suspended. The judge said that was as far as he could go in suspending the sentence and he could not be any more lenient in the circumstances.

The judge said that the accused had gone about getting her entitlements and could not be faulted for welfare obtained legitimately but he said that the particularly Irish sense of entitlement had come across very strongly in the way she tried to defend the case.