‘Get loan to pay back €21k dole’
A BEAUTICIAN who fraudulently claimed €21,000 in dole payments while working has been told by a judge to get a loan to pay it back.
Nadege Kibamba, 42, who was training to be a beautician, worked in a shop in Dublin using a different identity while she fraudulently claimed more than €21,000 in dole.
The woman, with an address at North Circular Road, Dublin 7 has admitted a benefit fraud which totalled €21,337.
The offences happened from 2010 until the following year and between January, 2014 and February, 2015. During the first period she gained about €11,000 and in the second fraud she netted €10,308 in Jobseeker Allowance Payments, Dublin District Court was told earlier.
She was working in a shop in Blanchardstown in Dublin using a different PRSI number, the court was told. Judge Anthony Halpin noted yesterday that the case has been before the court for the past two years. She has paid back €2,050. The judge heard she has started to increase her repayments from €20 to €100 a month. She paid €400 so far this year.
Her solicitor said her client has been studying to become a beautician and was now looking for work.
Judge Halpin said social welfare was for people with no job and who needed help but they don’t get help by others taking from it.
He adjourned sentencing until a date in January and told her to try to get a loan from a bank or her family to pay it back.
The offence can result in a fine of up to €2,500 and/or a six-month sentence in addition to being made pay back the amount of benefits wrongfully claimed.
The court can only consider applying the Probation Act and spare a defendant a criminal record in these type of cases if all the money has been given repaid.
The social welfare authorities also have a mechanism to continue to recover money owed to them after court proceedings have concluded.