Woman who faked terminal illness for €60k welfare scam jailed for three years

Samantha Cookes, who falsely claimed she was terminally ill to receive €60,000 in welfare, has been jailed for deception and theft

Samantha Cookes at Tralee Court in Tralee Co Kerry. Picture: Domnick Walsh

A 36-year-old woman has been sentenced to four years in prison, with the final 12 months suspended, after pleading guilty to 18 counts of deception and theft.

Samantha Cookes fraudulently claimed more than €60,000 in welfare and disability payments by falsely stating she was terminally ill.

Over four years, she received supplementary welfare payments from the Department of Social Protection.

Judge Ronan Munro said hers was “a carefully orchestrated plan” to take money from the State.

Samantha Cookes had “cynically exploited” the natural sympathy towards those with Huntington's disease, a disease she chose deliberately to exploit sympathy, the judge said.

She had received 238 payments totalling €60,334 over almost four years.

This was “a deliberate fraud over a protracted period of time”, Judge Munro said, handing down sentence at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday. 

Judge Munro noted when the Department of Social Protection attempted to get Ms Cookes to provide more details and attempted to impose “normal checks and controls”, she said she was housebound and also claimed she had tremors in her hands and was unable to use a pen.

The fraud became “even more sophisticated” when Ms Cookes presented medical evidence from a well-known GP in September 2021. 

“The GP who supplied the medical cert is blameless,” the judge said.

Judge Munro said Samantha Cookes had not come before the court with a clean record. She had five previous convictions for similar type offences — including taking money for a children’s trip to Lapland which never happened and posing as a psychologist.

On the mitigating side, there had been a guilty plea. 

The maximum headline sentence was five years for fraud. Noting her guilty plea, Judge Munro reduced this to four years, suspending the final year for a period of four years.

The sentence will be backdated to July 2024 when she was arrested.