Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
£1.9m winner in benefit con
A £1.9million Lotto jackpot winner who went on to claim almost £80,000 in pension credit has been jailed for 16 months. Patrick Ronan, 74, applied for the means tested benefit weeks after his lottery win in March 2005, Liverpool crown court heard. Recorder Vincent Fraser, QC, said Ronan lied that he only had savings of £230 and no other means of financial support. Recorder Vincent Fraser told Ronan, of Southport, Merseyside: “Plainly you were not entitled to any benefit and you would have known that. Given the astonishing windfall, your claim was particularly greedy.”