Cameroonian nurse found guilty of ‘crimes of greed’

A nurse from Cameroon, accused of fraudulently claiming €105,000 in social welfare in Cork over a six-year period, has been found guilty of what the prosecution called "crimes of greed", yesterday.

Lydie Kana, aged 39, of 16 Copperhill, Ballintemple, Cork, denied the social welfare fraud.

A jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court took less than four hours to return unanimous guilty verdicts on 18 of the 20 sample charges against her. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin adjourned sentencing to November 24, warning of some element of a custodial sentence. He said he was aware she had four children, but told defence lawyers: “Leave the Stradivarius at home.”

The judge said: “This was a very deliberate, well-organised crime of fraud. And the amounts are enormous. There has to be a sentence, part of which has to be a deterrent.” The judge said the fact she had four young children was a huge factor, but added that all he got from the defendant during the trial was her talking about “my entitlements”.

Addressing the jury in advance of their deliberations yesterday, Pearse Sreenan, prosecuting, said: “The director’s view is that, in effect, this was an offence of greed. If she had disclosed her husband was working and if his income was low, she would still have been entitled to something, but she denied he was working at all. And she has shown absolutely no remorse.

“In her memo of interview with gardaí she always said she did not know what he was earning. But yesterday that took a flight of fancy where she said she did not know he was working. For six years he was going to work in the Blackrock Inn and she did not know he was working.

“She has introduced a suggestion there was some element of violence in the relationship, that on one occasion he twisted her wrist. The suggestion of violence was not mentioned at all in the Garda interview.” James O’Mahony, defending, said: “You cannot have a criminal offence without the guilty mind. There has to be intention. The charge is that she knowingly made statements. In other words that she had the guilty mind, that she knew it.

“It is all about proving the guilty mind in respect of both (sets of) charges. You heard Mr Quirke’s evidence about all these forms. There is no dispute that they were signed. “One feature that has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt is that Lydie Kana knew her husband was down in the Blackrock Inn under an assumed name and that she was party to that. There is no evidence of Lydie Kana dropping in there for a cup of coffee. Does being married to the fella make her guilty because that is what the State is inviting you to do.”

She was convicted of knowingly making false declarations for the purpose of establishing entitlement to supplementary welfare allowances in the period December 11, 2006, to August 4, 2013 at Ballintemple Post Office and sample theft counts relating to the same six-year.