A woman who signed on for carer’s allowance of more than €3,000 on behalf of her partner who was in prison has been fined €250.
Mary O’Reilly appeared at Letterkenny District Court charged with the offence under Section 26 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act.
Sergeant Jim Collins outlined the offences to the court.
He told how Ms O’Reilly, 32, was collecting the carer’s allowance on behalf of her partner, Danny Connors, who was in prison at the time.
She collected various amounts of money from her local post office in Letterkenny on various dates in 2023.
The total amount of cash collected illegally was €3,232.
Solicitor for the accused, Mr Patsy Gallagher, said Mr Connors was entitled to the money and a reason was given why she was signing for the money on behalf of her partner who was caring for a relative.
Mr Gallagher said matters should have been “gone about differently” but that she had been given permission to collect the money.
He said perhaps the allowance should have been collected by Mr Connors’ brother.
He added that Ms O’Reilly was a mother-of-two who had no previous convictions.
Judge Ciaran Liddy queried if Mr Connors himself was actually entitled to the money while he was in prison.
He then added that it was obviously the case that the money would have been paid out anyway to whoever was caring for the family member and he was told that this was the case.
He fined Ms O’Reilly, of Canal Road, Letterkenny, €250 and granted legal aid to Mr Gallagher.