Letter leads to €700,000 insurance fraud investigation
An anonymous letter and a phone call received by a now retired insurance company staff member set off a major garda investigation into an alleged €700,000 insurance fraud by a consultant surgeon and his wife.
Mr Paul Lageu, who was head of customer services at Scottish Provident Ltd, said at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that the company contacted the gardai after he got the letter and phonecall.
Dr Emad Massoud (aged 50) and Mrs Gehan Massoud (aged 43), a nurse, of Woodview, Brownstown, Ratoath, Co Meath have both pleaded not guilty to intent to defraud the companies by falsely pretending that Mrs Massoud had suffered breast cancer and that there was an obligation on them to settle serious illness claims.
They deny intent to defraud €685,658 from Scottish Provident Ltd on March 25, 2002 through having that amount made payable to Permanent TSB and €45,338 on February 22, 2002 from Lifetime Assurance Company Ltd by having that sum transferred to their account at the Bank of Ireland in Letterkenny, County Donegal.
Dr John Conor O’Keane a consultant pathologist at the Mater Private Hospital, told prosecuting counsel, Mr Dominic McGinn BL, that he received two large breast tissue samples from Mrs Massoud in October 2001.
He said normally the samples he would get into his lab would be intact but this sample was "so large" it had to be separated to fit into two jars.
Dr O’Keane said he concluded there was a tumour in both samples which he described as "invasive lobular carcinoma". This meant that the tumour had formed in the fatty tissue of the breast and was spreading. It was estimated as 3cm in dimension and he diagnosed that the patient had "grade 2 cancer", an intermediate form.
The hearing continues before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury of four women and eight men.
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