Dead Money

There are some stories that catch my eye, that basically are almost beyond belief ....

Haughney, Mr Doyle, and Coakley

 ..... for instance a tale from Eire, that I had to read twice before it sank in.

If you were going to try and get hold of a relatives pension money, how would you go about it? Maybe just ask them, or just con them into handing money over, or maybe steal it. Or if they were dead, somehow conceal that fact, and impersonate them and forge their identity?

It was this latter situation that confronted one of the relatives of Mr Peadar Doyle, a 66 year old from County Carlow a pensioner, who had died suddenly in January 2022. So he and a friend apparently came up with a cunning plan. This involved his male relative and the friend allegedly taking his lifeless body down to the local post office on Staplestown Road in Carlow, propped up between them, and walking the body up to the counter, where they would attempt to trick the post office clerk into handing over Mr Doyle's weekly pension. 

The pair had arrived at the post office earlier in the afternoon looking to claim Mr Doyle's pension totalling €246 on January 21, 2022 - but were refused because he was not with them. A short time later, the pair are said to have come back carrying Mr Doyle between them, with a jumper pulled up over his face and a hat on his head.

Sadly for these two men, the clerk, Ms Margaret O’Toole, wasn't fooled and when they were challenged by the staff, they placed the body on to the post office floor, claiming he was having a heart attack and then fled. Of course the pair were easily tracked down by the Garda (Irish police) and identified as Gareth Coakley and the dead man's nephew, Declan Haughney. Police suspected that Mr Doyle may have died up to three hours before the incident took place.

When asked about the strange events, both men insisted that Mr Doyle "was alive when we left the house." Mr Doyles body was sent for autopsy (where post mortem examinations have revealed no signs of foul play on Mr Doyle's body), and then funeral, while Haughney later admitted that the pensioner may have died in transit, as his body 'went a bit slumpy' while the trio were en route to the Post Office.

At that funeral, Mr Haughney was acting as one of the pallbearers at his 66-year-old uncle's funeral, and also displayed a black eye, saying that local 'scumbags' had beat him up over the incident (as many locals had accused the pair of murder), while the officiating priest told a crowd gathered at the funeral that “no one should point a finger at anybody.”

So which way do you think this story went? .....

Well the Garda investigated whether there was any financial fraud involved in the case, and Mr Doyle's nephew Declan Haughney and Gareth Coakley later appeared in court, charged with a number of offences including with deception, whereby Haughney is alleged to have attempted to withdraw the pension of his deceased uncle on two occasions on January 21.

On the 19th of July 2023, both Declan Haughney and Gareth Coakley went on trial, charged with deception and theft at the Carlow post office. Both men had pleaded not guilty to all charges. By Friday the 21st of July 2023, it was all over, after both men had changed their pleas on the day their trial was due to start.... Quelle Surprise!! 

Haughney and Coakley were then both sentenced to two-and-a-half years and two years in prison respectively. With the final six months of Haughney's sentence suspended for one year and Mr Coakley was handed a two-year sentence with the final six months suspended. A post- mortem could not ascertain the time of Mr Doyle’s death, and there was no evidence of foul play.