This is the ‘romance fraudster’ who preyed on a grieving and vulnerable widow who lost her husband in sudden circumstances – and swindled €140,000 from her.
Peter McDonagh, 33, claimed he needed money for non-existent private cancer treatment in the UK, to purchase cars to live in as he claimed he was on the streets, to pay for siblings’ funerals and to pay debts to “dangerous people”.
He claimed he was due an insurance claim payment and would pay her back. However, he never paid her back any money, Drogheda Circuit Court heard.
McDonagh, of Melville Way, Finglas, Dublin 11 and Reece Court in Navan, Co Meath, met his victim at her late husband’s wake, claiming to be a friend of her husband’s.
“He exploited her vulnerability in grief and made veil threats that if she didn’t give him money he would commit suicide,” Detective Garda Charlie Barrett, of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), told prosecuting counsel Miska Hanahoe, BL.
The victim’s money, the court heard, was from a life insurance claim following her late husband’s death.
The married father-of-three pleaded guilty to a number of sample counts of 55 charges of deception on dates in 2024 under Section 6 of the Theft & Fraud Offences Act. The total amount he defrauded from his victim was €142,000.
Peter McDonagh
Det Gda Barrett told Ms Hanahoe the victim believed she was in a genuine relationship with him after he made contact with her “out of the blue” after they met at her husband’s wake.
In January 2024 until October 2024 he started to ask her for money for various reasons including to buy a new car as he claimed his car was taken by the gardai along with his ID, that he had been in prison for two weeks and needed bail money, that he needed money for the reconstruction of his father’s grave and that he needed private treatment in the UK for bowel cancer and that he owed debts to “dangerous people.”
He also told his victim that the “dangerous people” he owed money to would kill him and she wouldn’t get the money back and told her they knew where she and her daughter lived.
Later in 2024, the victim received a message from McDonagh’s wife telling her he isn’t single and that they had been holidaying abroad in places such as Barcelona, Alton Towers, and various other locations and that they had spent the previous Christmas together.
When the victim called him out after several months, McDonagh claimed he had money he couldn’t access because he had no ID and had an insurance claim coming.
However, the victim discovered he had no claim coming and McDonagh had agreed to pay her back €1,000 a week, then €2,000 a week but no money was forthcoming, the court heard.
He then told the victim he left his wife and wanted to be with her. In November 2024 the victim made a complaint to gardai and in February 2025 McDonagh was arrested in the departures lounge before he was about to embark on a one-way flight to Manchester.
When questioned by gardai, he told officers he gambled some of the money, that he had drug debts and blamed the victim’s late husband for those debts.
He also told gardai “she knew where the money was going,” and that “If I was doing her out of money I’d be in Spain in a flashy car.” He also claimed he “got a vibe” from her at the wake and that “it was her fault, no-one forced her to do anything, I didn’t threaten her.”
When it was put to him by gardai that he said he had cancer, he replied: “I’ll prove she’s a liar, I’ll show you in a few weeks.” When gardai told him that he deceived his victim into sending him money under false pretences, he replied: “Bulls***.”
In her victim impact statement, the victim told the court McDonagh approached her at her late husband’s wake when she was “vulnerable and going through a traumatic time, grieving and in shock.”
Sign up to our new Crime Ireland newsletter and get exclusive content from Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy
The Irish Mirror’s Crime Writers Michael O’Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
“It was a calculated plan to exploit me for financial gain,” the victim said, adding the money was the “only real security” she had and that was “taken away with no repayments.”
“I believe I was targeted because of my trust, honesty and vulnerability,” she said, adding she believed McDonagh was “in life and death situations,” but that this was all sustained and calculated with fake documents and fake images.
“I believed he was in danger and I believed there would be serious consequences if I didn’t send the money,” she said, adding “it was a deliberate and cruel scheme from the beginning.”
She said the deception has had a “devastating and life changing” effect on her and she can no longer work due to the emotional trauma and lives in fear of her safety.
“While I believed he was dying and in need, he used the money for his own benefit and his family. My trust in people has been destroyed and my life has been turned upside down,” she said.
Defence counsel Eoghan Fagan, BL said the 33-year-old had a promising career as a boxer when he was younger but that ended when he suffered a fractured skull when he was caught up in a feud in Navan.
“He has an underlying gambling issue and accrued debts from ‘difficult people’,” said Mr Fagan.
He said McDonagh is making good progress in custody, is on enhanced prisoner status and is taking pottery courses and crime awareness courses.
A number of testimonials were handed in, however, Judge Sinead McMullen questioned them as she said they did not refer to the offence of deception.
Mr Fagan said there “is limited weight” he can give the letters but that McDonagh has written a letter of apology and intends to take up employment when he is released from custody and “make good the wrong.”
Judge McMullen also remarked that McDonagh didn’t look to her as a gambler as only €20,000 of the €142,000 was spent on gambling but that he was “more a confident trickster.”
The judge said the offences were “very serious” and needed time to think about the sentence she will impose and adjourned sentencing until Friday.
Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here.