Two men in Carlow court over alleged fraud of deceased pensioner at post office

Sarah Slater

Two men have appeared before Carlow Circuit Criminal Court charged with deception and fraud of a post office last January involving the pension of a deceased pensioner.

Declan Haughney, 40, of Pollerton Road, Carlow allegedly took the body of his dead uncle 66-year-old Peadar Doyle, to a nearby post office to claim his pension payment. Gardaí believe the pensioner, who was an uncle of Mr Haughney, was already dead when he was taken into the post office.

A previous sitting of Carlow District Court in May, Detective Garda Kieran Shields gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution of Mr Haughney

The defendant was further charged with attempted deception and of attempted theft at Hosey’s post office and shop, Staplestown Road, Carlow on January 21st last.

Mr Haughney had originally been charged with two counts of deception in relation to the alleged use of a social welfare card. Det Shields informed the court that those charges were being dropped by the State.

Contesting the charges

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) directions in the case were for the charges to be dealt with in the District Court, if there was a guilty plea. However, Mr Haughney has repeatedly indicated at various court dates that he would be contesting the charges.

It is alleged Mr Haughney attempted to collect a pension payment of €246 owed to his late uncle. He is further accused of dishonestly inducing a member of staff at the same premises - at 11:14am. Both charges are contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001.

Mr Haughney is also accused of entering the Post Office at 11.04am where he "dishonestly induced by deception" a member of staff. The accused man remains in custody despite bail being granted previously. A small cash payment has been submitted to the court.

A second man faces a charge of attempting to deceive a post office employee out of €246 during the same incident. The accused man was remanded on continuing bail.

Both men are represented by defence solicitor Brendan O’Flaherty.

The Garda investigation has so far shown the pensioner did not die suddenly at the post office. Officers have also established evidence that Mr Doyle was alive earlier that morning.

A postmortem has determined there was no foul play in Mr Doyle’s death but was only able to estimate the time of death as some time on that Friday morning.

Before Judge Eugene O’Kelly adjourned the matter to November 8th to the same court to allow for further documents and evidence to be gathered.