Two and a half year sentence for €50k social welfare fraud

A Dublin man who stole over €50,000 through fake social welfare claims has been jailed for two and a half years.

32-year-old Thomas Lawrence of Foxborough Place in Lucan was charged with 134 charges of theft from the Department of Social Protection between 2010 and 2011.

The father of four pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to ten sample counts of theft of social welfare payments at Clondalkin Post Office, Ninth Lock Road, Clondalkin between 2010 and 2011.

Judge Martin Nolan said that this type of crime was difficult to detect and the court has a duty to deter it.