The man behind the biggest individual social welfare fraud in the State in 30 years claimed €248,000 under nine different names because the money was "easy to access".
Paul Murray (63), of no fixed abode, was jailed for 12½ years at Mullingar Circuit Court for offences described as audacious and breathtaking.
Judge Anthony Kennedy imposed a six month sentence for each of 25 sample theft charges before the court and a concurrent sentence of three years for possession of a false passport.
He said Murray had "shamelessly cheated the system" with "dizzying execution and control, never making a mistake" in a "planned, premeditated campaign", and the judge commended gardaí and social welfare staff for their meticulous investigation.
In his seven bank accounts only €11,000 remains of the money that Murray used to fund international travel and the court heard he also received a €37,000 inheritance while he was lodging fake claims between 2002 and 2010.
He was living in Thailand but returning here every three months to claim jobseeker’s allowance. He also fraudulently claimed disability and supplementary welfare allowances, all in a number of border and midland counties.
Murray initially claimed disability allowance in 2005 when he was diagnosed with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, but when he saw how easy it was to access the system, he used false documents to make further claims.
Murray was caught when his brother Patrick in Australia innocently applied for the passport that Paul had already taken out in his name, tipping off passport officials who contacted the Department of Social Protection.
Despite being warned that he would be in trouble, Paul Murray returned home to sign on in Cavan on October 19th last where Det Gda Peter Kelly was waiting for him.
"You’ve caught me red-handed," he told the officer and showed him where around 50 supporting documents, many of them false, were hidden in a box under the driver’s seat of his van. He went on to co-operate fully with the investigation, which ran to six volumes of evidence and more than a hundred pages of interviews.
Murray served time in the United Kingdom in 1994 for similar offences there to the total of £30,000 (€34,000).
Giving evidence Murray did not indicate any remorse for the cost to the State, but he said he had shamed his family and regretted that.
Murray said he came back to Ireland despite the warning about his passport application because "I didn’t believe I would be caught." His own legitimate disability application became invalid when he was no longer resident in the State.
At one point Judge Kennedy stopped technical evidence to say he needed "eyes in the back of my head" to keep up with what he called a "multifaceted fraudster".
"He thought he was immune," concluded the judge, who noted there was no plan to return the money and refused leave to appeal the severity of the sentence.