CONWOMAN WINS KFC COMPO..BUT WON’T PAY BACK STOLEN BENEFITS
A WOMAN awarded €2,000 in compensation after a branch of KFC refused to allow her assistance dog on the premises was previously convicted of stealing around €40,000 in welfare benefits.
However, Maria Rosita Apaza Machaca, 41, said she would not be using her recent windfall to repay any of the money she stole from the State.
Scotco, the operator of a KFC restaurant on Parnell Street in Dublin, was found by the Workplace Relations Commission to have discriminated against the woman on grounds of disability.
Ms Machaca, who is visually impaired, was awarded €2,000 in compensation, having been asked to leave the restaurant with her assistance dog on April 25, 2023.
Five months earlier, under the name Rosemarie Fearsaor, she was convicted of stealing around €40,000 in welfare benefits and given a threeyear suspended sentence.
Judge Martin Nolan said Ms Machaca had not been cooperative with the legal process, but described her as “quite intelligent”, “ingenious”, and “eccentric”.
The State alleged she stole more than €40,000 in various welfare payments from the Department of Social Protection, while claiming benefits worth €56,000 in the UK.
It alleged the accused had used the name Maria Marchaga to claim benefits from 2011 to 2015, and then attempted to apply for a PPS number in 2015 under Rosemarie Fearsaor.
When gardaí searched a caravan in Malahide, Co Dublin, they found a receipt from Natwest showing payments from the UK Pensions Department totalling £50,660 (€58,761).
They also discovered blank birth certificates and baptismal certificates, along with documents in the names of both Rosemarie Fearsaor and Maria Rosita Apacha Marchaga.
Ms Machaca confirmed to us that she had won the WRC case against KFC, and said she had a similar case coming up against a branch of a wellknown chain of coffee shops.
She said she was appealing her conviction and could now prove she was not in the country when certain welfare payments were collected.
“I can’t be in Scotland with a sick service dog at the vet and here accepting a cheque,” she said. “I live in homeless accommodation.”
news@irishmirror.ie
I can’t be in Scotland with a sick dog and here accepting a cheque