'Shopaholic' jailed for fraud of almost €100k

A ‘shopaholic’ who continued to falsely claim State benefits while her case for defrauding almost €100,000 from her employer was going through the courts has been jailed for one year.

Lynn Byrne (aged 24) from Killinarden Estate, Tallaght was jailed for what Judge Katherine Delahunt described as her "systematic, flagrant campaign to defraud the social welfare system".

Byrne pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 12 counts of falsely claiming unemployment assistance, unemployment benefit, and lone parent allowance from the Department of Social and Family Affairs, and rent allowance from the Health Service Executive between May 2004 and December 2005.

Judge Delahunt had imposed a three year suspended sentence last January on Byrne for defrauding almost €100,000 from her employer and noted that she continued falsely claiming the benefits while that case was going through the courts.

Judge Delahunt imposed a sentence of 12 months imprisonment on the new charges and said she was taking into account that Byrne was now paying a small amount back and had a child with a disability.

Garda Amanda Timmons told Ms Sinead McGrath BL, prosecuting, that Byrne had used her former partner’s mother’s Personal Public Service (PPS) number to make 83 claims totalling €27,856.

Gda Timmons said she admitted the offences when interviewed in April 2006

Judge Delahunt imposed the three year suspended sentence on Byrne last January for dishonesty and theft of cheques from BWG Foods Ltd in Crumlin where she worked as a clerk in the central billing office.

Byrne admitted obtaining a cheque for Irl£20,284, by using a forged manual requisition, and to inducing Mr Frank Mooney of BWG Foods to issue a cheque similarly for Irl£14,620.

She also pleaded guilty to stealing a cheque worth £1,151on a date unknown between April 1-4, 2001 and a further cheque worth £2,033 on a date unknown between August 27-29, in 2001.

Detective Garda Anne Ellis said Byrne would either alter or duplicate requisitions to obtain the cheques and would lodge them directly into her own bank account. The total loss to BWG Foods Ltd from April 2001 to February 2003 was in the region of €99,438.

Det Gda Ellis agreed with defence counsel, Ms Caroline Biggs BL, that Byrne told gardai she spent most of the money on clothes and a car.

Det Gda Ellis accepted that Byrne was addicted to buying things and could be described as a "shopaholic".

Ms Biggs told Judge Delahunt last January that Byrne "was deeply troubled and had been troubled for a number of years" and that she had "behaved in a compulsive and impulsive way".