Judge says company 'acted deceitfully' after worker's death

A High Court judge has stated that a construction company acted in a deceitful and fraudulent manner in its handling of a claim for a death-in-service benefit payment from the family of an employee who died in 2005.

Star Homes (Midleton) Ltd had brought a legal challenge aimed at quashing a determination of the Pension Ombudsman that the company pay €69,000 to the dependents of the late Pawel Szeefs because it was not given an oral hearing so that it could resolve certain facts that were in dispute.