Gardaí attached to the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB), with assistance from Gardaí on secondment at the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP), have today arrested a man (aged in his late teens) for fraudulently claiming Covid-19 payments.
A search was conducted at a house in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath today, Thursday 21st May 2020 on foot of intelligence received from DEASP in relation to these fraudulent payments.
The suspected offender was receiving six separate Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payments into a bank account, in what are believed to be bogus names.
During the course of the search operation, a sum of cash and counterfeit cash was seized. The man was arrested at the scene and taken to Mullingar Garda Station where he is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.
Investigations are continuing.
