The Court of Appeal imposed an eight-month custodial term on Naila Zaffer after finding that the original sentences for a €221,600 insurance fraud were unduly lenient. It suspended all but the final eight months of concurrent two-and-a-half-year sentences.
The court delivered its replacement sentence on 17 January 2017. It said the sentences would run concurrently from that date. The suspended portions are subject to a three-year period post release and a €100 bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
Zaffer had pleaded guilty on 23 February 2016 to ten offences: three counts of making a false instrument, three of using a false instrument, three of theft and one of attempted theft. On 11 May 2016, she had received concurrent two-and-a-half-year sentences, wholly suspended subject to conditions including probation supervision and treatment for addiction issues.
The Director of Public Prosecutions sought a review under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993. On 28 October 2016, the Court of Appeal ruled the sentences unduly lenient, saying the offences involved more than €200,000 and a premeditated, planned fraud over a prolonged period. The present judgment dealt only with the replacement sentence.
The offences took place between 2007 and 2012, while Zaffer worked as a senior insurance claims official with the Irish Public Bodies Insurance Company. The court said she forged claims by adding an extra claimant to 17 policy claims paid by Irish Public Bodies. The additional claimant was one of five people known to her; cheques issued in their names were lodged into several bank accounts. The court said the fraud caused no personal financial loss and was absorbed entirely by Irish Public Bodies.
The court considered two-and-a-half years the appropriate headline sentence, consistent with broadly similar fraud cases. It cited mitigating factors including Zaffer’s guilty plea, cooperation with gardaí, remorse, lack of previous convictions, difficult background, and positive reports from the Probation Service and Community Addiction Response Programme. It also considered that she had remained at liberty since February 2016 and would now face a reversal of that position.
Taking these matters into account, the court suspended half of each sentence, then suspended a further seven months. It ordered the final eight months of each concurrent term to be served in custody.