A fraudster has apologised to the Department of Social Protection and a GP for taking advantage of Covid-19 conditions to deceive them and steal more than €60,000.
Samantha Cookes (36) last week pleaded guilty at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee to two counts of deception and 16 sample theft charges. The total involved was €60,334.35.
The money was taken initially via supplementary welfare payments and then under disability allowance between February 28th, 2020 and June 12th last.
Cookes maintained in her fraudulent claim that she was suffering from a debilitating illness that would ultimately be terminal.
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Barrister Tom Rice, prosecuting, instructed by State solicitor Diane Reidy, told the court that Cookes, in a handwritten letter to the department in February 2020, said she had been diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease and also had epilepsy.
She claimed the disease was life-limiting and would prove terminal, but she was unable to see a neurologist because of Covid-19 restrictions.
She drew 74 payments totalling €17,747 in supplementary welfare payments.
Mr Rice said Cookes accused the department of “major discrimination” when it sought certification of her illness. She wrote letters of complaint saying she was no longer able to hold a pen and could not access support because of pandemic rules.
Cookes led a GP into filling out a form in 2020 saying she had previously been diagnosed with the disease. He led the doctor to believe she was struggling to grip things, or to use the stairs or shower, and that her balance was affected.
“On face value it all looked very plausible and the disability allowance was awarded,” Mr Rice said.
However, the deception quickly unravelled after gardaí, alerted by department officers, obtained her medical records. Cookes failed to turn up for scans and appointments ordered by her GP and did not have genetic testing for her supposed condition.
Defence barrister Richard Liston said to Garda Ray Liston that “Covid times enabled a deception such as this to take place and go on for as long as it did”. Garda Liston agreed.
“A snowball of deception became an avalanche,” counsel said, offering an apology on behalf of his client to the doctor and department.
The Garda said Cookes’s story had no consistency when it was put to him by defence counsel that she had mental health issues.
The court heard Cookes has five relevant previous convictions for theft, where she took money from people for a trip to Lapland for children, and made a gain by deception posing as a psychologist dealing with autism reports.
Cookes has been in custody since July. Judge Ronan Munro adjourned finalisation of her sentencing to March 5th.
