Photo credit: Unsplash

Man who defrauded state of over €25k in social welfare avoids jail

April 7, 2025

4 min

A man who fraudulently obtained over €25,000 in social welfare payments has avoided jail after appearing before the Circuit Criminal Court today.

The court heard how Polish man, Tomasz Pysz, defrauded the Department of Social Protection of the monies, much of which was received in the form of COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payments. 

Pysz pleaded guilty to numerous counts of having committed “theft” of the monies which were made in payments of €350 euros in respect of the covid payments, as well as to charges of having fraudulently obtained disability benefit.

Garda Steven Byrne gave evidence of how Pysz was found to have two PPSN numbers by an official at the GPO: one in his own name, and one in the name of another man who is his brother-in-law and does not reside in Ireland currently. 

The court heard that Pysz was also using a bank account in his brother-in-law’s name but that the man was not aware of what this was being used for and did not have “control” of it.

The accused received 24 pandemic unemployment payments in the sum of €350 as well as another payment of over €200 euro, totaling €8,603 between the 21st of April and the 1st of September 2022, the court heard. 

He received further pandemic relief payments of 350 amounting to €7,700 with a combined total of €16,303.

Gda Byrne told the court that the accused’s former employers, Kevin Moran Builders Limited, were interviewed in the course of the investigation and confirmed that a photo of Pysz shown was known to them by the name of the accused brother-in-law, Bartłomiej.

When shown a photo of Bartłomiej – who left the state in 2021 -they confirmed that they did not know the man in the image.

Between 2019 and 2021 Pysz also fraudulently received disability payments in the amount of€9,235.50. 

Of the total amount defrauded from the Department of Social Welfare, €25,538, Pysz still owes €21,814 and a payment plan has been arranged, the court heard. 

The accused’s defending counsel argued that Pysz has “mental health issues” and has “suffered various injuries over the years”. 

A doctor’s letter was submitted in evidence dating from April 2024. 

Pysz has children to support and is “making huge effort” to make amends for his offending which, it was argued, arose in circumstances where he was put under domestic financial pressure. 

He “went through a bad patch” but is “an honourable man” and “now a law abiding citizen”,  his defence argued. 

Considering sentencing, Judge Martin Nolan said that the accused had taken on an identity “that wasn;t his own” and had “defrauded” social welfare by making applications for payments he wasn’t entitled to. 

He noted that Pysz has no previous conviction and a “good history of work”, saying that the court had to answer whether the amount of money defrauded from the state was enough to warrant a jail term. 

Judge Nolan said that access to social welfare “must be easy” for those who need it and is therefore “always open to fraud”.

Deciding not to imprison the accused, he sentenced him to 20 months in jail suspended on condition that he be of good behaviour, and that a sum of €10,917 which is currently in a frozen account be paid to the Department of Social Welfare.