A 74-year-old grandmother and mother of 16 has been jailed for insurance fraud after falsely claiming several times she had slipped and hurt herself on footpaths and in shops.
Winnifred Lawrence from Moorfield Grove, Clondalkin, Dublin, was paid over €28,000 for the false claims she made in a false name between 2012 and 2014.
The serial fraudster claimed she tripped on footpaths in Lucan and Leixlip and slipped on a substance both in Tesco and the Book Value bookshop.
She also claimed she had burned her leg on a heater on the 40 bus in O’ Connell Street, tripped getting off another 40 bus in Ballyfermot and that she slipped on a cabbage leaf in Iceland.
Lawrence made false claims in her own name and in the name of Margaret Mongan.
She succeeded in three claims and was paid over €28,310, but was unsuccessful in three others.
IPB Insurance, which among others covers public liability for council footpaths, put together a file and contacted the gardaí.
The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation began an inquiry and Lawrence pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud. The crimes took place between 2012 and 2014.
Her defence counsel told the court she was from a Traveller background, had practically no education, was functionally illiterate and in poor health.
However Judge Pauline Codd sentenced the grandmother to three-and- a-half years in prison with the final year-and-a-half suspended.
Afterwards Lawrence said to the judge: “I’m very sorry, it’ll never happen again judge.”
“I know Ms Lawrence,” the judge replied, “but you have to be punished.”
IPB’s lead anti-fraud investigator Joyce Foley said the company welcomed the decision and that it sends a really important message that insurance fraud will not be tolerated.
All of the insurers are fighting a hard battle against fraud, she said, and today’s decision is very important in that.
Insurance fraud affects everyone’s premiums, Ms Foley added.
She also said it was very hard to get these convictions because the bar for the evidence is so high and it takes years to investigate these cases.
