Romanian jailed for social welfare fraud totalling €280,000
FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY KEY TO DEFENDANT’S CONVICTION
THE largest known social welfare fraud case uncovered with the use of facial recognition software has led to a Romanian national being sentenced to three years in prison.
Adrian Vaduca (44), of Apartment 2, Old School Yard, Riverchapel, Gorey, pleaded guilty at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court to theft using basic social welfare payments, rent allowance and supplementary welfare allowance.
The defendant obtained more than €280,000 in fraudulent social welfare payments over a 16-year period between 1999 and 2015. His fraudulant activities were discovered when facial recognition software flagged that he was claiming social welfare under two names.
Claiming that ‘greed got the better of him for whatever reason’, Judge Barry Hickson handed down a three-year prison sentence, with the last nine months suspended, backdated to when he was arrested and taken into custody on June 30 last.
The court was told he first arrived in Ireland in 1998 and was refused asylum but returned the following year, under the assumed name of Eduard Preda, and granted asylum. He then began collecting social welfare using this false identity.
When Romania joined the EU in 2008, he became eligible to collect social welfare under his own name and began doing so, while also continuing to collect payments as Eduard Preda.
Det Garda Kevin Heffernan told Prosecuting Counsel Sinead Gleeson that Breda Murphy of the Department of Social Protection’s staff in Wexford town alerted him to the case last June after the software matched two photos and showed that Vaduva and Preda were in fact the same man.
Garda Heffernan said it was clear ‘Eduard Preda’ and ‘Adrian Vaduva’ were the same person.
Between 1999 and mid-2015 he collected a total of €280,828 using the two identies, Garda Heffernan added. He received €161,000 of this under the name Eduard Preda during that period, and the remainder under his own name.
Det Garda Heffernan said that in recent years, the Department of Social Protection introduced a new public service card which meant that every person receiving a payment was invited into a departmental office and had their photo taken.
‘Eduard Preda’ was invited in 2015 and had his picture taken, and in June 2016, Adrian Vaduca was similarly invited. The new Cogent Facial Imaging Matching Software (CFIMS) system matched the photos.
Vaduca was arrested in Arklow last summer and admitted the fraud, including renting a flat in Wexford which was suppose to be the address for ‘Eduard Preda’. He was paying €400 a month in rent but receiving almost €1000 in payments which Det Garda Heffernan described as an elaborate scheme. He was brought to Wexford Garda Station where he was interviewed a number of times.
Det Heffernan said search warrants were obtained in relation to the acused’s home at Riverchapel and also for the property he was renting in Wexford town. The Wexford apartment was completely empty of any furniture or possessions, although gardai found a blue folder which contained a false ID card and other documents under the name Eduard Preda.
The court was told that Vaduva had not accumulated any of the money but was using it to live on. He also paid money to his sick mother and he had three children in Romania, one of whom is seriously ill. He only had €20 on him when arrested and had no money in his bank accounts.
Vaduva cried throughout the court hearing and the court heard he sobbed throughout his interviews with gardai.
Defence Counsel John Peart SC said the defendant indicated that if the court was to suspend part of his sentence he would then return to Romania, or alternatively would bring his family to live in Ireland. He was willing to carry out the recommendations of the court.
Describing him as an emotional man, Judge Barry Hickson said the new CFIMS software had been instrumental in this case. He said ‘greed got the better of him, for whatever reason’, since he arrived in Ireland.
‘Nonetheless these are serious offences for he deprived the State of almost €300,000 which could have gone to other people in need,’ the judge said.
He sentenced him to three years in prison with the last nine months suspended, backdating the sentence to June 30 last.