Pensioner spared jail for €100k fraud

A Dublin pensioner who used her sister’s social welfare card to fraudulently claim €100,000 benefits will avoid jail if she carries out 240 hours community service.

Marie McMahon, aged 68, a former women’s rights campaigner, told gardaí that when her sister Katherine emigrated to America in 1992, her friend initially used the woman’s social welfare card to pick up her benefits. When this woman went into hospital McMahon agreed to continue collecting the payments and they split the money between them.

This woman died in 2012 and McMahon continued to collect her sister’s benefits until she was detected through facial recognition technology in July 2014.