Trial over alleged €46,000 pension fraud collapses after one day

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

Noel Ellis pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 48 counts alleging social welfare fraud involving more than €46,000 in pension payments. The alleged claims were made between June 2006 and July 2010 using the identity of his late brother, James Ellis, according to the State. Ellis maintained that he was James Ellis.

After one day of evidence, the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi on all counts, discharging Ellis from the indictment. The trial had been scheduled to last three days. Evidence included testimony from a brother who said he attended James Ellis’s funeral in London in 1997 and identified the man in the dock as Noel Ellis. Garda David Redmond also described a search that found a birth certificate in Noel Ellis’s name and social welfare documents in James Ellis’s name.