Pensioner who used dead brother’s identity to claim more than €93,000 jailed

A pensioner who used his dead brother’s identity to claim more than €93,000 in benefits has been jailed for two and a half years. Aidan Byrne pleaded guilty to a range of fraud charges at Donegal Circuit Court.

The 75-year-old had conned the social welfare system by using the identity of his dead brother Anthony who died in a drowning accident in England in 1972.

Judge John Aylmer said the offences were “very much pre-meditated” and extended over a “significant period of time”.

He added that Byrne was also the recipient of an English pension and he was not claiming his dead brother’s pension out of financial necessity.

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The accused, a native of Wexford, had lived in England for a number of years but returned to Ireland in 2000 and later began to use his dead brother’s identity to claim various benefits.

Between June, 2015 and August, 2021 Byrne claimed a total of €83,157 in pension and fuel allowances on behalf of his dead brother.

He also applied for a medical card from the HSE in his brother’s name and claimed €10,858 for various different treatments including optical and doctor’s visits between June, 2012 and December, 2021.

Byrne successfully applied for a passport in his dead brother’s name using his brother’s birth certificate but his own picture. His bogus claims came to light when he made another passport application under his own name in 2019.

Passport office workers using facial imaging noticed both pictures were identical and the information was passed to the Department of Social Protection. The information was in turn passed to Gardaí.

Byrne pleaded guilty to a range of charges including theft from both the Department of Social Protection and the HSE, forgery and using a false instrument.

The court heard he now lived in a council house in Glenties and was a man of no means, with €16,000 in his bank account frozen by the courts.