Axenia Alexei receives two-year suspended sentence for benefit theft

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed a two-year sentence on Axenia Alexei at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court and suspended it for two years. The proceedings were reported on 22 June 2015.

Alexei pleaded guilty to theft of €15,339 from the Department of Social Protection and possession of a fake Latvian passport. The benefit theft involved a false PPS number and occurred at Swords Post Office in Swords, Dublin, from July 2012 to March 2014. She possessed the passport at her home on 15 September 2014.

Tom Neville BL, defending, said she had saved €2,000 as compensation. Judge Nolan ordered payment of that money to the department and allowed a further two years to repay €6,000.

Garda David Smith accepted, in response to Mr Neville, that Alexei could legally work in Ireland from 2012 and claim Jobseeker’s Allowance under her genuine PPS number. Judge Nolan put the benefits she could have received at more than €7,000 and considered that entitlement when deciding the repayment amount.

Giving evidence to prosecutor Cormac Quinn BL, Garda Smith said Alexei used her genuine PPS number for work during part of 2012 while drawing benefits under the false number. He accepted Mr Neville’s points that the work was not full time and that she had made no child benefit claim.

Alexei told gardaí that losing her shop job had left her struggling to afford basic necessities, and she apologised. Mr Neville asked the judge to give weight to her admissions and early guilty plea. She had no previous convictions.