A mom of 4 who fraudulently claimed greater than €100,000 in little one welfare and single mum or dad advantages has been jailed for 2 years.
awyers for Janet Agbontaen (55) advised Dublin Circuit Legal Court docket that she was below the management of a domineering and violent husband when she dedicated the thefts and frauds.
The court docket heard when the Nigerian native arrived in Dublin airport in April 2001 closely pregnant and below a false id, she claimed to be from Sierra Leone and sought asylum.
5 months later she made a second declare of asylum below her actual id and claimed she had arrived in Eire the day earlier than.
For the subsequent eight years she lived right here below two identities, certainly one of which was pretend. Underneath the false id she fraudulently claimed round €55,000 in little one profit claims, €3,000 in early childcare allowance, and round €83,700 in a single mum or dad household funds.
In 2002 she took a judicial evaluation towards a deportation order referring to her and her kids below the false identities. Her sworn statements to the Excessive Court docket are the premise for costs of perjury or perverting the course of justice.
Lorcan Staines SC, prosecuting, advised the court docket that due to the varyingly false accounts of her kids she gave in her software to remain right here, the Minister was unknowingly in search of to deport an Irish citizen.
Mr Staines advised the court docket that a number of the advantages paid out had been for kids who had been born right here, however who she had given false identities to match her personal pretend title.
He stated that a number of the kids had been entitled to the advantages on the premise that “the kids had accomplished no flawed”, lowering the sums taken by €40,000 to go away a complete of €102,718.
He stated that there’s €88,000 excellent because the defendant has been making common repayments by means of a reduction from the continuing social welfare funds she is legitimately claiming below her actual id.
Agbontaen of Castlegrange Sq., Clonee, Dublin, pleaded responsible to 9 pattern counts of theft from the Minister of Social Safety at put up workplaces at Enniscorthy, Co Wexford and in Dublin metropolis on varied dates between October 2002 and April 2008.
She additionally pleaded responsible to giving false info to a births’ registrar about her little one in October 2002 and fraudulently acquiring a driving licence in November 2002.
Defending counsel James Dwyer SC advised the court docket that his shopper was below the route of an over bearing husband. Detective Garda Francis Hoban agreed that her husband was “extraordinarily violent” and the court docket heard of various incidents of garda calling to the home on foot of allegations of assault.
At one level gardaí took the girl, who has labored as a well being care assistant, to hospital from her dwelling with a head damage.
Dt Gda Hoban stated that she has spent instances in ladies’s shelters and agreed that, regardless of the sum of money taken, she and her household “weren’t residing within the lap of luxurious”.
Choose Martin Nolan stated that the defendant used a false id to get into Eire and went on to make a life for herself right here.
He stated that she used her false id to embark on a course of fraud, by what he stated is often referred to as “double dipping” for profit funds.
He famous that she was a sufferer of home violence and, to a point, coercion and stated he was taking this, and her lack of related earlier offending, into consideration.
He famous she has introduced up a household who had been doing nicely and that her grownup daughter was in court docket to provide proof of what happened within the household dwelling.
He advised the girl’s household, who grew to become very distressed because the jail time period was imposed, that “your mom is getting probably the most lenient sentence the court docket may give”.