Northern Ireland

Benefit cheat who earned more than £144,000 to be sentenced next week

Benefit cheat Pauline Donaghy earned almost £144,000 in housing benefit and income support
Benefit cheat Pauline Donaghy earned almost £144,000 in housing benefit and income support Benefit cheat Pauline Donaghy earned almost £144,000 in housing benefit and income support

A Belfast woman who committed one of the biggest benefit frauds in Northern Ireland will be sentenced next week.

Pauline Donaghy claimed benefits she was not entitled to over a six-year period, earning more than £144,000 in housing benefit and income support.

Belfast Crown Court heard today that while the 42-year old mother-of-three is paying back £25 a week "it would take 100 years to repay the money, not including any interest".

Judge Roseanne McCormick QC said Donaghy will be sentenced next Tuesday.

The court heard that Donaghy, from Ballysillan Road in the north of the city, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to declare a change of circumstances.

The 42-year-old admitted obtaining housing benefit between February 2009 and August 2015 and obtaining income support between January 2009 and June 2015 while failing to notify the Social Security Agency that she was living with her partner.

Crown barrister Kate McKay said Donaghy earned more than £22,340 in bogus housing benefit and around £122,000 in income support.

The prosecutor said the Department of Social Development launched an investigation after Donaghy said she was renting a house as a private tenant.

Donaghy's partner was named as the house's landlord but investigators found they were living together "as husband and wife".

The court also heard that Donaghy's partner had been in full time employment from 2000 until the investigation began in 2015.

When Donaghy was interviewed in August 2015, she admitted she had signed the relevant benefit claim forms but had failed to tell social services of her change of circumstances.

Ms McKay said Donaghy denied she and her partner were in a relationship.

However, when faced with documentary evidence, including medical and employment records, she admitted they lived together and he was the father of her three children.

Telling the judge she believed the custody threshold had been met, Ms McKay said Donaghy's offending "went on for a considerable period of time", and revealed the overpayment was "one of the largest there has been in this jurisdiction."

Ms McKay added that she accepted the money was not used to fund a lavish lifestyle and that Donaghy had a clear criminal record.

Defence barrister Mark Farrell said Donaghy eventually made "full admissions".

He said Donaghy had the case "hanging over her head like the Sword of Damocles" for more than three years, which heightened her depression and anxiety.

Mr Farrell accepted the overpayment was a "significant amount of money" but said his client is voluntarily paying back £25 from her benefits.

He said she did not spend the money on "fancy cars or foreign holidays" but instead had used it for household bills and day-to-day living.

He urged the judge to only consider custody "as a last resort".