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 was already dead when he was taken into the post office.
At 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 21 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.
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. Mr Haughney is also accused of entering the Post Office at 11.04am where he "dishonestly induced by deception" a member of staff.
Both charges are contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001. The accused man remains in custody despite bail being granted previously. A small cash payment has been submitted to the court.
A second man from Carlow was charged with attempting to steal Peadar Doyle’s state pension, to the sum of €246, on 21 January, 2022, at Hosey’s Post Office, Staplestown Road, Carlow.
The accused also faces a charge of attempting to deceive a post office employee out of €246 during the same incident. He 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 post-mortem 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.
Judge Eugene O’Kelly adjourned the matter to November 8 to the same court to allow for further documents and evidence to be gathered.
CORRECTION: This article originally published the name of Darren Coakley as one of the two men involved. The error arose due to an administrative error on the court list for that day. Darren Coakley’s name was deleted from the article at the earliest opportunity when the error became known. In line with our policy on corrections, we are happy to now correct the record.
