A woman who faked her own death in order to avoid the attention of Gardaí has had her sentencing delayed again before the Circuit Criminal Court before.
This morning, Judge Orla Crowe, delayed passing sentence on Amy McAuley (35) who has an address at Connagh, Fethard-On-Sea, Co. Wexford, for a second time.
Judge Crowe said that the court wanted the assistance of the Probation Service in assessing the most appropriate way of dealing with the mother of one, and that the court had read “extensive documentation” on her.
The court heard that McAuley is currently residing in Dublin with her parents in order to facilitate her Dublin court appearance, and an application was granted to vary her sign on conditions from a Garda station in New Ross to Blanchardstown Garda station where she is to continue signing on twice a week.
Case History
During the hearing of the case, counsel for the State described the facts as “somewhat complicated and unusual”.
McAuley pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to incidents of fraud where she purchased mobile phones using false instruments and subsequently used false instruments to avoid Gardaí, ultimately faking her own death.
Sergeant Eoin Kirwan gave evidence of how Garda Des Rogers of Pearse St. Garda station had been contacted by Mark Kelly, a representative of 3 Mobile, on the 6th of December 2020 in relation to suspected fraud in respect of the ordering of 9 mobile phones with a combined value of €3,199.
The court heard that the phones were ordered online in the name of the CEO of Yield Lab, Sinead Ford, who when contacted by Gardaí, said she had placed no such order.
A Nicole Deacy was used as a “point of contact” for the transactions where a copy of the woman’s passport and a Panda waste receipt were fraudulently supplied.
When contacted, Ms. Deacy said that she had not been involved in any transaction where the order was to be sent to an address at Bramble Park Bridgetown, Wexford, the then address of the defendant.
The court heard that Ms. Deacy had previously employed the defendant as a childminder, and that the copies of her personal information had been obtained at this time.
Deacy supplied a photograph of McAuley’s passport which she had taken when employing her.
When Garda Rogers contacted McAuley in May 2021 to inform her of the investigation into the purchase of the mobile phones and expressed his wish to interview her, she acknowledged this and agreed to liaise with Pearse St. station
This was during the covid pandemic, the court heard, and so the defendant made a note of Garda Rogers’ phone number.
The court heard that the defendant supplied a medical certificate from the Rotunda Hospital saying that she was not fit to be interviewed due to “illness” and her “mental health” made out by a John Hastings, which later turned out to be false.
In December of the same year, Gda Rogers was contacted by a woman who claimed to be McAuley’s sister who said her name was Gillian.
The woman claimed that McAuley had “gone into treatment” and was therefore unavailable to cooperate with Gardaí, however this woman was later discovered to have been the defendant herself although she does have a sister by that name.
The court heard that at the time Gardaí had no reason to suspect they were being misled and accepted the communications were genuine.
It was accepted that McAuley had acted alone in the deception, which she later admitted when interviewed by Gardaí.
On the of 26th May 2023, contact was made from a private number by a woman who said her name was Winnie Paddion who said she had found Gda Roger’s phone number on the mobile of her sister who she claimed had passed away.
This woman, who also turned out to be the defendant, assured Gda Rogers that she would supply him with a death certificate in respect of her sister.
On the 30th of May 2023, Gda Rogers received an email containing a death certificate purporting to be from a firm of solicitors, which turned out to have been sent by McAuley herself.
At the time of receipt, the state accepted that communication was genuine and proceedings that were in place against the defendant ended.
A phone call was made to Gda Rogers purportedly by a real solicitor named Ciara McLoughlin who works with Carter Anhold Solicitors, but Ms. McLoughlin, who had previously represented McAuley in another matter, said that she had not made this call when contacted.
It was noticed that the phone number supplied for Ms. McLoughlin was the same phone number that had been given as contact for Winnie Paddion.
When Gda Rogers checked RIP.ie for a death notice in respect of McAuley, he saw that one had been uploaded, but had been removed after the site was contacted to say that the defendant was not in fact dead.
A second RIP.ie notice in respect of the defendant was uploaded on the 4th Jan 2023 after a death notice was sent from a Shankill Funeral Directors with an address in Belfast, which turned out to be a fake certificate sent from a fake company by the defendant.
The RIP.ie notice said that McAuley had died on the 26th of December and that her remains had been reposed at St. Mary’s Church Lucan, and had been cremated at Mount Jerome.
When Gda Rogers contacted the local parish priest, he was told that there was no funeral for someone by that name. Mount Jerome said that nobody with that name was cremated.
On the 6th of June 2023, Gda Rogers went to the registry of births, deaths, and marriages where he was shown two death certificates in respect of McAuley, one of which was made out to her name in Irish, Amy Nic Amhlaoibh.
A doctor John Straton had signed one of the death certificates but when he was contacted said he was not aware of the supposed death.
The other death certificate was signed by a Dr. Paul Deacy who, in like manner, said he was not aware of it.
Gda Rogers received information that McAuley was likely to attend a wedding in Enniscorthy in June 2023 and obtained CCTV footage from the Riverside Hotel from which he was able to identify the defendant.
The court heard that by this time she had married and was the mother of a young child.
A search warrant was obtained which was executed on the 23rd of June 2023.
When Gardaí arrived at the address the door was answered by the defendant’s husband, who the court heard was completely unaware of his wife’s offending.
A number of documents that were significant to the investigation were found and laptops were seized.
When McAuley was interviewed by Gardaí she made “full admissions” and was not in any way “difficult”, the court heard.
Theft of money from former employer.
The court heard that during the course of the investigation into the phones, it was realised that McAuley was also the subject of proceedings into the theft of large sums of money in relation to a former employer in 2015.
The court heard that this fraud had been reported, but due to delays and the onset of the covid pandemic the investigation hadn’t gone anywhere.
This charge, to which the defendant pleaded guilty, relates to the possession of monies that the person knows or believes (or is reckless as to whether or not) the property is the proceeds of criminal conduct.
The court heard that at that time McAuley was employed as an accountant with MultiBank and had directed repayments from clients to be sent her an account in her own name.
Over €49,000 was transferred to McAuley in the form of repayments from Allied Beef Processors in 10 invoices intended for MultiBank, a sum which has not been recovered.
Tipperary Coop made repayments of €6,550.78 o which were unknowingly sent to the defendant’s PTSB account. The court heard that this money was repaid in two transactions of €5,000 and €1,550 euro.
Previous court appearance
The accused had previously received a two year suspended sentence in relation to the theft of €111,000, which was amended by the Court of Appeal as being overly lenient.
The COA extended the period of suspension of the sentence from two to ten years with a view that the defendant would be able to return the stolen money within the time frame, however the Circuit Criminal Court heard today that to date only €30,000 has been repaid.
Payments made due to supposed death.
The court heard that when she falsely claimed to have died, McAuley was working remotely at a UK company that operated a “death in service benefit” program.
The company was contacted by a woman claiming to be Winnifred Paddion who said that she was now in custody of McAuley’s young son after the defendant had supposedly passed away due to “maternity related complications”.
The woman, who turned out to be the defendant, said that she needed the benefit – which was over €96,000 – to be paid out “up front” because the child needed an operation.
The court heard that the company transferred a sum of €9,000 “on good will” to an AIB account belonging to the defendant with the rest to be paid in trust to the aforementioned Ciara McLoughlin of Carter and Anhold Solicitors, who was not in any way involved in the scheme.
The balance of the benefit money was not transferred.
Arrest and interview by Gardaí.
McAuley was arrested on the 5th of January 2024 and conveyed to Pearse St. Garda station where she made full admissions. The offences were committed during the term of the suspended portion of her prison sentence which was amended by the Court of Appeal.
The court heard she has four previous convictions all of which relate to the 30th of November 2015.
Defending counsel, Ms. Rebecca Smith JC, argued that her client had pleaded guilty to all the matters before the court today and that she suffered from mental health issues.
Sgt. Kirwan accepted that McAuley is now on medication but was “definitely not” at the time of her offending.
Ms. Smith argued that the defendant’s young son also has a number of “difficulties” and that her client’s reasoning behind faking her own death was that she did not want to leave him if she was sent to prison.
She admitted to her wrongdoing “Having realised the jig was up”, she said, adding that at one time McAuley had moved to Galway to “run away from her troubles”.
The stolen money was used to pay for expenses like rent, medication, and daily costs, she said.
There was no evidence that the funds have been used to pay for holidays to fund and extravagant lifestyle, Smith said.
At the time McAuley said her life had “spiralled out of control” and that she was experiencing depression.
She admitted to making the various calls in which she had “pretended to be other people” but said that she didn’t remember all of them.
McAuley has said that she did what she did for her son. She had become pregnant again since, but lost that child due to a miscarriage, the court heard.
McAuley was hospitalised due to an overdose in recent times, her counsel argued.
She had apologised for her behaviour and has shown remorse, Ms. Smith said, adding that she is in “constant” contact with the Gardaí in order to abide by her bail conditions.
The DPP advised the court that the maximum sentence for attempts at perverting the course of justice is life in prison.