THERE HAVE been six reported cases so far this year in Galway of foreign nationals producing fake documents, such as passports and birth certificates, at the social welfare office in a bid to obtain PPS numbers so that they can work illegally, it emerged at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Judge Raymond Groarke commented that people were using professional fraudsters and forgers to obtain fraudulent documents. This crime was being committed far too regularly in a schematic and professional manner, the judge said.
“People are making vast sums of money on the backs of people looking for such documents and it has to be marked with the imposition of a prison sentence,” he said.
The judge was dealing with Anthony Gomina (36), a Nigerian formerly of Ballygaddy Road, Tuam, and who now lives in Dublin. Gomina received sentences totalling nine months at Galway District Court in March after pleading guilty to producing a false British passport and birth certificate at the social welfare office in Galway.
Gomina, who had been in Ireland on a visitor’s visa at the time, appealed the severity of the sentences to the Circuit Criminal Appeals Court.
Det Sgt Brendan Carroll told the court that this would have been the sixth such case of fraud at the social welfare office in Galway this year. This was a substantial increase over previous years, he said.
Defence barrister Geri Silke said her client had completed an MBA and had been offered a PhD placement in Britain which he could not take up as he and his wife, who both now lived in Dublin, had a very ill child who needed constant care.
Judge Groarke said that while the accused had family responsibilities he had acted with premeditation, care and skill in trying to obtain a PPS number fraudulently.
He knew perfectly well what he had to do to get the false documents and he must have paid professional fraudsters and forgers to set the crime up.
The judge said if such a crime was infrequent there might not be a public requirement in the issue of sentencing but he noted Det Sgt Carroll’s evidence of six such crimes committed in Galway already this year. The judge then affirmed the order of the District Court but he directed that the various sentences of three and four months imposed in the District Court should run concurrently.