Man claimed €35k disability while working abroad

A Listowel man claimed over €35,000 in benefits while employed as “a steel fixer” working six days a week in the construction industry in the UK, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee was told.

Patrick Holly, aged 51, of O’Connell Avenue, Listowel, Co Kerry, had been earning £800 a week and the judge branded his behaviour as “appallingly avaricious”.

He legitimately applied for and been receiving the benefit while out of work and ill in Kerry in 2010. However, in November 2011 and until the end of May 2015, Holly was still getting the €188 per week disability payment into his account — while earning £800 as a steel worker and residing in Reading, the sentencing hearing as told.