The 50-year-old woman used her friend’s public services card to claim one parent family and child benefit payments from Bundoran Post Office after her friend had returned to Ukraine
Svitlana Karabudak at Letterkenny Circuit Court. (Image: North West Newspix)
A pizza factory worker who stole over €21,000 in bogus benefits to have weight loss surgery in Turkey has been told by a Judge to “accelerate” her repayments.
Svitlana Karabudak appeared before Donegal Circuit Court.
The 50-year-old woman used her friend’s public services card to claim one parent family and child benefit payments from Bundoran Post Office after her friend had returned to Ukraine.
The accused woman was previously charged with a total of 42 offences, including 16 of theft, 13 of deception and 13 of forgery.
She pleaded guilty to a number of sample charges of deception, forgery and theft.
Detective Garda Paul Lynch told the prosecuting barrister, Ms Fiona Crawford, that the fraudulent claims were made over a period of one year, from March 2023 to March 2024.
The total amount of money lost to the exchequer was €21,416.
An inspector from the social welfare’s special investigations unit had discovered that Liudmyla Rahimova was residing in a bed and breakfast in Bundoran and subsequently left to return to Ukraine with her two children.
It was established that the woman no longer resided at the address, but somebody was still in receipt of payments being collected at Bundoran Post Office.
Gardai arrived at Ms Karabudak’s home and search it on March 18, 2024.
A public service card in the name of Liudmyla Rahimova was found, as well as €4,100 in €50 notes and s receipts for the cash.
In total, she admitted claiming €17,056 for the one-parent family payments, €3,840 in child benefit payments and a back-to-school payment of €520.
The accused, who came to Ireland in 2022 to escape the war and who has no previous convictions, admitted her wrongdoing.
During interview she told detectives that she travelled to Turkey for a weight reduction operation as well as another operation for her son.
Having heard representations for the accused from barrister Sean McGee BL, instructed by solicitor Rory O’Brien, Judge John Aylmer said he was anxious to impose a non-custodial sentence.
Last May, he adjourned final sentencing for a year to allow the accused woman to repay the monies.
When the case was adjourned until yesterday, the court was told that €10,910 is still outstanding of the money defrauded.
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Mr McGee said his client is paying between €100 and €150 per week but stressed that she is the bread-winner in the home and that she is still looking after her son who has additional needs.
Judge Aylmer said “concerted efforts” had been made to repay the monies, although he would have preferred to have seen an acceleration in payments but that hasn’t happened.
“It does seem this woman is hard-working and doing her best albeit somewhat slower than the court would like to see,” he said.
He added she was working and looking after her son and deserves a little more time to meet these repayments.
He adjourned the case until the next sitting of the court in December to see what progress is made.
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