Woman avoids jail for 'extremely serious' passport fraud

Irish Examiner

5 days ago

A woman whose passport fraud was extremely serious and called into question 'the integrity of both the Irish birth certificate registration system and the Irish passport system' has avoided a prison sentence.
Judge Dermot Sheehan imposed a fully suspended three-year sentence on the 44-year-old woman who cannot be named as it would identify her first born child.
The judge said she manipulated a vulnerable Cork man to put his name forward as the biological father of her child when in fact they effectively had no relationship of any kind, and this gave her advantages in ultimately obtaining citizenship.
This man previously got a suspended jail term.
Judge Sheehan said at Monday's sentencing hearing at Cork Circuit Criminal Court:
These matters are extremely serious. We have a system of permitting people to reside in this country based on procedures which people must obey. If they try to deceive the system it is very difficult to be fair to everybody.
'If someone like the accused does this there may be people — equally worthy — who fail to obtain residency because of what the accused has done. Assessment by the authorities has to be based on her being honest. The consequences are very serious. They enabled a person to call themselves a citizen of this country on foot of the deceit.'
Mitigating factors
However, following submissions from defence senior counsel Jane Hyland, Judge Sheehan said there were noteworthy mitigating factors including the plea of guilty, albeit entered on the day the trial was due to commence, and her long-term mental health issues.
It was also urged on the judge by Ms Hyland to take into account her remorse and the fact that she is primary carer for a number of children and that other than the matters before the court she had made a significant, positive contribution to her local community.
Intricate details of the frauds
Detective Sergeant Keith Cleary of Garda National Immigration Bureau outlined the intricate details of how frauds were carried out by the foreign national who got a Cork man to pretend that he was the biological father of one of her children. On the basis of this pretence she secured advantages for herself and her family in terms of rights of work, of residence and the eventual securing of Irish citizenship.
The 44-year-old non-national woman pleaded guilty to four fraud charges in November 2024. She cannot be identified as it would lead inevitably to the identification of her child which is prohibited in this case under the Children's Act.
She admitted falsely claiming that an Irish man was the biological father of her child, and three counts of false information in passport applications in 2009, 2012 and 2017. This man previously pleaded guilty to his part in this deception.
The first charge stated that she provided information which was false or misleading contrary to Section 69 Subsection 3 of the Civil Registration Act 2004, namely that on July 29 2009 at the Civil Registration Office, Adelaide Street, Cork, did provide to the registrar, particulars of information which she knew to be false or misleading, knowingly providing false information naming (co-defendant) as the biological father of her child.
The other three charges under the Passports Act 2008 relate to applications for passport renewal for the child.
Arrived in Ireland on a student visa
Det Sgt Cleary began the account of the woman's criminality stating that the defendant came to Ireland on St Patrick's Day 2008 on a student visa for the purpose of studying. Tracking back to her entry, the next person to be processed was her husband — the biological father of her four children. She lived with him from the time of her arrival in Ireland.
She gave birth to a child in Cork in December 2008 — her fourth child.
The name of the father that appeared on the birth certificate for this baby was a Cork man, who was never in a relationship with the accused. He has since been prosecuted and given a suspended sentence for his part in the deception.
He later told the immigration bureau that his partner became friendly with the defendant and through that contact she — the defendant — asked him to commit the act of forgery in relation the birth cert. This man said he knew the day would come when he would be approached by gardaí and realised as time went by that he was way out of his depth with the act of criminality, to which he had literally put his name. He said he had felt under pressure to please everybody.
Passport application
Once the passport for the newborn child was obtained with the false identification of the father, the defendant and this man went to a garda station and proceeded with an application for a passport for the child. A member of An Garda Síochána signed the application for the passport and this passport was later issued.
'This was a fraudulently-obtained Irish passport,' the detective said.
The first benefit of this for the mother was that her visa which allowed her to work no more that 20 hours a week, now became a 'stamp 4 visa' whereby her right to work was unlimited. She ultimately applied for and was granted citizenship in 2015, and her husband was also naturalised in 2017.
Her husband identified himself as the biological father of the fourth child and supporting DNA verified this.
The name of the man who pretended to be the father was explained as a mistake, and that the actual intention was that he would be named as a guardian. Ultimately, she pleaded guilty to the charges at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.