A WOMAN who pretended to be dead after swindling her lover and banks in Donegal out of €26,800 has been jailed for three years at Donegal Circuit Court.
Diane Connelly (31) first pretended that her father had died in an aircraft crash between the US and Canada, the court was told yesterday. She later told her fiance Danny Walsh that she was going to Edinburgh to have a check for cancer.
While staying overnight in Derry, she informed him she had heard her father’s body had been found and she was flying to Canada to identify it.
A few weeks after that she pretended she was a stepsister in Canada phoning a priest in Dungloe to inform Mr Walsh at his home that Diane Connelly had died.
The court heard of a series of 20 offences that added up to €26,800 in thefts from Mr Walsh by forging cheques in his name with the Bank of Ireland and with the AIB in Dungloe and Falcarragh in Co Donegal.
Connelly was living in Belleek, Co Fermanagh, when she met Mr Walsh in January 2008. They moved in together in Sheskinarone, Dungloe, in April 2008 and became engaged in June of that year.
Det John Gallagher told the court that Mr Walsh contacted him in January 2009 to complain about missing moneys from his banks.
As a result of his investigations he discovered that Connelly did not go to Edinburgh or Canada.
Instead, she was picked up on CCTV cameras in Dublin as she made withdrawals.
She was captured in a blue car in Co Wicklow. Since then €41,000 worth of frauds in Kerry and Cork dating back to 2005 came to light and she was currently serving three years.
Det Gallagher said Connelly – who also used the name McDonald and who at one time had a UK passport claiming she was 49 – knew Mr Walsh’s funds were being exhausted and she wanted to extract herself from the situation so he would not follow her.
Det Gallagher told the court: “As matters stand I am not able to say conclusively who she is.”
Judge John O’Hagan paid tribute to Det Gallagher for his meticulous investigation.
“To put it in its simplest terms, she was a confidence trickster who hoodwinked Mr Walsh up to his ears,” said the judge. He jailed Connelly for three years.
