A Ukrainian woman has been jailed for flying in and out of Ireland to collect social welfare every fortnight for six months despite never having lived in the State.
Tetiana Stakhiv (51) had been receiving treatment for a serious medical condition, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
However, that was no-longer available when the war broke out in Ukraine, so she began buying her medication on the black market.
Stakhiv was before court on Thursday, having pleaded guilty to the theft of €9,103 from the Department of Social Protection between October 2025 and last April.
Gda Louise Keane told the court how the defendant was living outside Ireland and travelling every two weeks to collect jobseeker’s allowance payments.
When a Department of Social Protection check was carried out, it was found Stakhiv had never lived at any of the addresses she had given to the department.
Keane said several flights between Dublin and Poland aligned closely with Stakhiv’s collection dates and that the woman’s passport also tallied with their records.
She said Stakhiv was arrested in May and told gardaí she came to Ireland in late 2023 to collect her then-underage daughter and return to Ukraine.
The garda agreed with Jennifer Jackson, defending, that Stakhiv had been affected by the war in Ukraine. She accepted Stakhiv had no cash, personal belongings or trappings of wealth when arrested.
Keane also agreed Stakhiv had no English and no family or ties to this jurisdiction and that custody would be difficult.
The garda also accepted Stakhiv was not a criminal mastermind and said she had sympathy for the woman “to a degree”.
Jackson told the court that, once released from custody, Stakhiv was planning to live with her 24-year-old daughter in Bulgaria.
Judge Martin Nolan said it was a serious matter for somebody to come here, pretend she was living here and then fly in and out to collect social welfare.
“It’s a thought-out crime,” he said.
Jackson said Stakhiv came from a war-torn country and had not committed the offences to go on extravagant holidays.
“Her world was turned upside down. She couldn’t get her medication,” Jackson said, saying Stakhiv was remorseful.
The judge imposed a 10-month jail sentence and backdated it to May 25th when Stakhiv went into custody.