Son’s welfare bank account was opened after he died

A woman “tricked” the Department of Social Protection into paying money into an account which she opened in the name of her dead son.

Days before he died, the teenager’s application for a disability allowance had been granted, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee heard, in what the woman’s defence counsel described as a “bizarre case”.

Jean Anne McCarthy, aged 44, of Cois Coille, Tralee, Co Kerry, opened a bank account in the name of her son Dylan, 24 days after he had been killed in a car crash near Killarney on November 1, 2014.