Guilty plea to €17k benefit fraud in Dublin

A woman unlawfully claimed almost €17,000 in one-parent family social welfare payments after she got married, a court had heard.

Catherine Newman, aged 36, of The Pines, Killester, Dublin, pleaded guilty at the Dublin District Court to the benefit fraud.

Judge John O’Neill compared it to a TV advert about fraudulent insurance claims, “where the keynote sentence in the ad is you are putting your hand in other people’s pockets, the same principle applies here”.