A Pakistani man who came to Ireland and claimed asylum on a false Afghan passport has avoided jail after defrauding the state of nearly 44,000 in social welfare payments.
Passing sentence today, Judge Orla Crowe said that had Fiazal Akbar, (60) of Benburb Street, Dublin 7 come to Ireland and used his true identity to claim the benefits he received under the fake name, he would have been entitled to them.
The court heard that the maximum sentence for the offence is 10 years, with the court setting a headline sentence of 4 years before passing an actual sentence of 2 years which was suspended for 4 years, meaning that Mr. Akbar will spend no time in jail.
Case Background
Last Friday, the Circuit Criminal Court heard that the accused eventually admitted that his identity documents were false when he went to a branch of AIB where he had been receiving social welfare payments under his false name.
The court heard that Akbar, who has three sons and a wife in Pakistan whom he wishes to bring to Ireland where he feels “settled”, made admissions to bank officials after he was unable to visit Pakistan after his fake passport expired.
Gardaí gave evidence that this admission gave rise to officials at AIB alerting them via a Section 19 referral due to suspicious activity.
The false Afghan passport was obtained in Ireland, the court heard.
The defendant made voluntary statements to Gardaí at the Bridewell on the 15th Mar 2024, and returned to make another statement on the 5th May 2024.
The court heard that after Akbar came to Ireland he went to a bank with an ML10 proof of identity form seeking social welfare payments. He also submitted false documents to Gardaí in Waterford in 2008. He was not provided housing via social welfare.
Since coming to Ireland, the accused has returned to Pakistan three times, twice on his false passport in 2013 and 2015, and once in 2023 on a Pakistani passport which is genuine.
He has no previous convictions and Gardaí had “no issues” dealing with him in circumstances where he was “fully cooperative”.
Gardaí agreed with Akbar’s demanding counsel, Marc Thompson Gorlimund BL, that his client’s offending would not have come to light if he had not made admissions to AIB.
Mr. Thompson said his client was “upfront and genuinely remorseful” and that he has “no trapping of wealth”.
He rents a room in a house in which two other men are also staying, for this he pays €280 euro a month with the price of the whole room being €780 euro per month.
The total amount of the fraudulently obtained social welfare is just under €44,000 and was obtained over a period of 11 years, meaning that on average approximately €4,000 was paid to him per year.
For some of his time here he was in receipt of €19 per week as an asylum seeker, but is now on full social welfare payments with his genuine identity after the Dept. of Social Protection decided he was entitled.
There was also a period of time where he was not in receipt of any state payments as he had no identity documents.
He now works part time in an Indian restaurant and receives a supplemental benefit of €170 per week while he earns about €700 per month at the restaurant.
Akbar claims that he is from an area of Pakistan that is near the border with Afghanistan and that he had “fallen foul of the favour” of the Islamist group, his defence counsel said.
Mr. Thompson argued that his client was unlikely to come to adverse attention in the future and that “desperate times make for desperate acts”.
He noted that in certain circumstances the Dept. of Social Protection deducts money from payments, but that in the case of Akbar, the Dept. was happy to reward him with the full amount.
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