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Revealed: The woman who banked mum’s welfare cash to pay for funeral

The Quilligan case was one of a number of prosecutions taken against individuals who have committed welfare fraud

Patrick O’Connell

Today at 16:03

THIS IS the 54-year-old woman who banked welfare cheques made out to her dead mother to help pay for the 72-year-old’s funeral expenses.

Pictures of Margaret Quilligan’s bespoke grave were proudly shared by family members on Facebook after her death.

But it emerged this week that cheques for the woman’s blind welfare allowance, mistakenly sent out to the pensioner after her death, had been unlawfully used by her daughter Teresa to help pay the funeral costs.

Appearing before Cork District Court on Monday, Teresa Quilligan of Mount St Joseph’s Close in Cork pleaded guilty to two offences relating to theft by deception.

She accepted that she had lodged two cheques for a blind welfare allowance – posted by the HSE out to her mother Margaret after her death – to her own bank account.

The amount involved totalled some €507.

72-year-old Margaret Quilligan died in May of 2016 but the HSE continue to post out her monthly blind benefit cheques for a period of 19 months after she died.

The benefits cheques continued to lodged to different bank accounts or cashed throughout this period up until March 2018.

Two of the cheques were lodged to Teresa Quilligan’s bank account.

After the court heard Quilligan had brought the full some of €507 lodged to her account to Monday’s sitting in reparations, she was handed down a suspended sentence of 8 months in prison.

The Quilligan case was one of a number of prosecutions taken against individuals who have committed welfare fraud on Monday.

In Co. Louth, a 24-year-old man who collected more than €20,000 in benefits for his deceased granduncle, had his case put back for a probation report.

Ryan Thornton, St Laurence’s Park, Drogheda, pleaded guilty before Drogheda District Court on Monday to 12 related summonses.

Evidence was given that he was a carer for his mother’s uncle and had paid back €1,900.

Gda Denise Clancy testified that the offending occurred over 11 months and that the defendant collected a total of €20,324 he was not entitled to.

There were no previous convictions.

Mr Thornton admitted six summonses for offences at the post office in West Street, Drogheda, and five at the Boyne Centre post office, and one summons for false accounting, within the State, on 22 April 2020.

Barrister Eoghan Fagan said he was a carer for his mother’s uncle and had become quite close to the man and lived with him for a year before his death.

Sources confirmed this week that prosecutions for welfare fraud are likely to increase in the coming months and years.

According to data recently released by the Department of Social Protection, there are currently more than 470 social welfare fraud cases before the courts and almost 390 further cases are being considered for prosecution.

According to the department’s annual report for 2022, the Department’s fraud team, which includes both department staff and gardaí seconded to the department, conducted over 16,500 investigations in 2022.

The report said this unit is supported by seconded officers from An Garda Síochána “specifically assigned to support complex investigations”.

It said that during 2022, SIU inspectors completed over 16,500 investigations, out of an annual target of 17,000 for the year.

“Total savings to end of December amounted to over €62m out of an annual target of €56m,” the report said.

It said the department provides identity management services to several public service agencies.

“This facilitates the use of the Personal Public Service (PPS) Number in the delivery of a range of public services, developing online services, and enhancing systems for control of fraud and abuse,” the report said.

It said a total of 305,889 PPS Numbers were allocated in 2022.

It said the department’s SAFE registration process “authenticates” the identity of a person and enables customers access to public services more efficiently and seeks to preserve their privacy.

“By the end of 2022, as a result of the SAFE registration process, a total of 284 cases of suspected identity fraud have been referred for investigation. Of these, 22 cases were referred in 2022,” it said.