A man given 22 months in jail for defrauding the State out of €3,400 by signing for his dead brother's dole, had his sentence suspended last week (July 21 ) when he offered restitution and said he wanted to change for his four-year-old daughter.
Patrick Cassidy (30 ) of Bramble Close, Athlone was jailed for the scam on April 1, which he operated for the first half of 2006.
However, in the Circuit Court this week, he said that he had been off heroin nearly two years.
“I have turned my life around since then,” he said.
“I have a four-year-old baby girl and I want to change for her. I lost a brother to drugs and I don't want to put the family through that again.
“I've spent eight... nine...10 years in prison. It took a lot of time for the penny to drop.”
He told the court he was working on a five-year care plan with a counsellor at the Open Door project.
His barrister, Mr Pauric Hogan, told Judge Anthony Kennedy that Cassidy had offered to make good the loss to the Department of Social Welfare and that he wanted to be honest with the Probation Service about his ongoing usage of cannabis.
“I wasn't going to tell her I was smoking two [joints] a week when I was smoking them like cigarettes,” said Cassidy.
“You really are a truly, hardened criminal,” said Mr Peter D Jones for the State.
“I've been out of trouble for five years, apart from the social welfare trouble,” said Cassidy.
“You had a previous career in crime,” said Mr Jones.
“'Had' being the operative word,” countered Cassidy.
“You had form in the past,” said Mr Jones.
“In the past,” asserted Cassidy.
“You're certain you won't go back?” queried Mr Jones.
“Certain,” declared Cassidy.
Judge Kennedy accepted his entreaties and suspended his jail sentence for two years, providing he stayed under the supervision of the Welfare and Probation Services for the duration.
