Las Vegas wedding woman acquitted of social welfare fraud

A mother-of-four, who claimed she did not know her Las Vegas wedding was valid in Ireland, has been cleared of unlawfully obtaining almost €30,000 in one parent family payments.

At Dublin District Court, Judge John Brennan had compared the case to the comedy film The Hangover about the antics of a group of men at a bachelor party in Las Vegas in the United States.

Ruling on Wedesday, he said the marriage was valid.

However, he accepted submissions from Matthew Holmes BL that his client Michelle Burke (39), from Cappagh Road, Finglas, Dublin 11 could rely on the defence of "honest though unreasonable belief".

Dismissing the case, the judge said he had studied her demeanour when she testified and he added that her evidence was effectively uncontroverted.

The total alleged fraud was €29,773 and it was the prosecution's case that she got married and failed to notify the Department of Social Protection while claiming the one parent family payment between November 2010 and August 2012, a charge she had denied.

If convicted she would have faced a possible six-month jail term.

The trial heard she had been in receipt of the one parent family payment since 1997. She was getting €317 a week.

A trawl by staff from the Department of Social Protection revealed Ms Burke got married to her current partner on November 6th, 2010, at the Holywood Wedding Chapel, Las Vegas. The court heard the marriage was legally recognised in Ireland.

Her payment was stopped and she was interviewed but told the inspector she did not think that the marriage was legal. She also said her partner, who was not the father of her children, paid tax and then lived at a different address in Dublin 1.

In the witness box, Ms Burke had claimed she had gone the US for a few days with a group for a friend’s birthday party.

Questioned by her barrister about the marriage ceremony, she claimed “we just thought it was funny to do it” and it was for “for a laugh”.

“I honestly didn’t think it was legal,” she said.

Asked why she did not remember much about the ceremony, she replied, “because we were drunk”.