Cleaner who posed as sister to steal €100k avoids prison
A SCHOOL cleaner who stole over €100,000 in social welfare over 17 years, by pretending to be her sister, has avoided jail.
Mother-of-five Carol Clarke, 57, used the money to support her family and help pay off a son’s drug debts, a court was told.
Clarke pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing from the Department of Social Welfare at Phibsboro Post Office in Dublin between February 1994 and July 2011. The total stolen was €104,431.
Inspector Thomas Lynch told Dublin Criminal Court court yesterday that gardaí discovered in 2012 that social welfare was being claimed on behalf of Bernadette Darcy, Clarke’s sister.
Ms Darcy told gardaí she had no idea that the social welfare was being claimed under her name. Clarke was arrested shortly afterwards and, initially, denied the claims, but after carrying out a number of handwriting and fingerprint tests, she admitted to the offence. Staff at the post office also identified her as the culprit. Judge Karen O’Connor sentenced Clarke to two years in prison which she suspended in full.
She took into account the ‘heartbreak and tragedy’ Clarke had suffered, as one son was shot dead and a second had killed himself.
She noted that the woman, from Dunard Drive, Navan Road, Dublin, was caring full-time for her ill daughter.
Judge O’Connor wished Clarke ‘every good fortune’ and commended her for looking after her daughter and grandchildren. She said she would not ask her to compensate the State, because ‘it would be unduly onerous’ considering her limited means.
Tara Burns SC, defending, said Clarke had a difficult background. Her husband died of Huntington’s Disease in 2013. A son and daughter also suffer from the condition.
Her son is cared for in hospital while Clarke cares for her sick daughter and her daughter’s two young children in the family home. The court heard another son took his own life at the age of 25 after running up drug debts, while her younger son, Glen Clarke, was killed in a shooting incident last December.
Ms Burns said her client was paying back the welfare debt in €50 instalments.
Caring full-time for ill daughter