Tetiana Stakhiv, 51, was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after she admitted theft from Ireland’s Department of Social Protection. The sum was €9,103 in Jobseeker Allowance, taken between October 2025 and April 2026.
Garda Louise Keane said Stakhiv was based outside Ireland and came back roughly every fortnight to collect the payments. A departmental check found she had never lived at the addresses she had supplied. Journeys between Dublin and Poland lined up with those collection dates, and her passport matched the travel record. She was arrested in May.
Keane said Stakhiv told officers she had come to Ireland in late 2023 to collect her daughter, then under 18, and return to Ukraine. The court heard that treatment for a serious medical condition stopped when war began, and that she then bought medicine on the black market. She had no English, no family ties in Ireland, and no cash or signs of wealth when detained. Keane agreed she was not a sophisticated organiser and said she felt some sympathy.
Defence barrister Jennifer Jackson BL said Stakhiv plans, once freed, to live in Bulgaria with her 24-year-old daughter, and that the offences were not committed to fund lavish holidays. Judge Martin Nolan called it a serious, deliberate course: presenting herself as resident, then flying in and out to draw benefits. He set the term at 10 months, counted from 25 May, when she entered custody.