Man claimed pandemic payment under false identity while avoiding trafficking arrest

Tom Tuite

A Lithuanian man hiding from a crime gang and extradition over human trafficking allegations was tracked down through Department of Social Protection facial recognition technology, a court has heard.

Darius Musinskas (56), who was later acquitted of people smuggling, had unlawfully claimed €17,000 from the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) under an assumed identity.

Judge Keenan Johnson imposed a three-year suspended sentence and ordered Musinskas to pay €9,300 at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court.

Factory worker Musinskas, of Oliver Plunkett Park, Dundalk, Co Louth, pleaded guilty to theft and using a false instrument between April 2020 and April 2021.

In evidence, Garda James Donaldson said the social welfare office's anti-fraud facial recognition measures led to a "match" of two images of the accused under separate names.

He used a doctored Lithuanian identity card to apply for a PPS number under his alias in 2018 and claimed to be renting a home in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath.

He also used an old bill from a former tenant at that address to show he lived there. It was checked, but none of the tenants there had heard of him.

Judge Johnson heard that Musinskas had came to Ireland in 2002, worked and had PPS under his real name.

Pictures from both applications lead to a "match".

He received 52 PUP payments and was then extradited to Lithuania.

Garda Donaldson agreed with Andrea Callan BL, defending, that her client was aware of the existence of a European Arrest Warrant under his actual name concerning alleged people trafficking.

He was sent back to Lithuania last year but was not convicted and released.

The garda also accepted that it was not a case that Musinskas had not obtained double PUP payments under both identities but solely under the false name he had worked under since 2018.

He had also saved some money to give back.

The married father of two had one prior conviction in Ireland for drink-driving.

Judge Johnson heard there was no loss to the state.

When the pandemic hit, Musinskas was let go from his job under his fake identity. Ms Callan submitted that he would likely have got it anyway because he had worked since coming to Ireland more than 20 years ago.

However, she added that Musinskas had a "genuine fear for his own safety", and a letter from his wife was provided to the judge.

Sentencing, Judge Johnson said that "underworld" figures involved in people trafficking caused Musinskas to be concerned for his safety.

He noted the accused was later acquitted in Lithuania, after which he returned to Ireland and made admissions about the PUP claim.

The judge said he was impressed how the facial recognition measures picked up on this fraud, which he described as comforting.

Ranking the offence as "mid-range", he suspended the sentence on condition that Musinkas did not reoffend in the next six years and paid the €9,300 he had put aside to the department.