€1.1m fraudster remanded in custody

An insurance claims handler who defrauded Axa Insurance of €1.1m over five years has been remanded in custody pending sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Daniel O’Halloran (aged 52), of Jamestown Road, Finglas, pleaded guilty to 25 sample charges from a total of 178 counts on the indictment of defrauding Axa Insurance, Wolfe Tone Street, Dublin on dates between December 1999 and June 2004.

Detective Garda John O’Brien said O’Halloran would reopen insurance claims that had already been settled and change the name on the application forms. He would then wait until a colleague had left their computer terminal open and using their identification would authorise a cheque for payment of that claim.

He used the names of his wife and another male friend on the resurrected application forms and lodged the subsequent cheques into bank accounts in their names but to which he had full access.

He made an average of three to four false claims per month and defrauded the company of approximately €20,000 monthly, totalling €1.1m over the five years.

Judge Frank O’Donnell said it was a really sad case. "If I had only Mr O’Halloran and his family to think about it would be handy but this is an extremely serious crime and there is no way I can gloss over that."

"Irrespective of our individual opinions of banks and financial institutions, when they are undermined it undermines our society," he said before revoking O’Halloran’s bail and remanding him in custody.

Det garda O’Brien said that each false insurance claim was below IR£5,000 or €6,300 because O'Halloran didn’t have authorisation to process applications over this threshold.

He said that neither O’Halloran’s wife nor the other man were involved in the scam. O’Halloran had been given complete access to the man’s bank account for which he had an ATM card and would also lodge the man’s weekly wages into it.

Gardaí were contacted when it was discovered in July 2004, following a routine audit in Axa, that previously closed files had been reopened by O’Halloran who made "forthright admissions" and fully co-operated explaining how he made the money and how he spent it. He had no previous convictions and had never come to garda attention before.

Det Garda O’Brien agreed with Mr Conor Devalley SC (with Mr Vincent Heneghan BL), defending, that O’Halloran went to great pains to emphasise that neither his wife nor the other friend had anything to do with his fraudulent activity.

He agreed that although O’Halloran had spent some of the money "significantly enhancing" two properties he had previously bought in Kerry, most of the funds were "frittered away". He had been very generous to relatives and extended family and towards other people that found themselves in financial difficulty.

Mr Devalley told Judge O’Donnell that his client expected to pay €600,000 back to Axa, which he calculated would be made up from the forfeiture of his shares and pension to the company, the proceeds from the sale of his two Kerry properties and €12,000 which was left in the accounts when his crimes were discovered.

He accepted this left "a significant shortfall" and that O’Halloran was now working "all the hours God gave" to raise funds not only to pay back Axa but in an attempt to provide a secure future for his wife and nine year old daughter.

Mr Devalley said O’Halloran had been working in Axa for 31 years and couldn’t provide any reason for why he did what he did. He was a man with poor self-esteem and a reformed alcoholic who liked to shower those around him with generosity in "a bizarre way to pay for their good will".