Ann Wilson, 44, admitted fraudulently claiming over €35,000 after her car and another were involved in a low-velocity collision at the Ballycullen Roundabout, Woodstown on 4 February 2013.
Judge Nolan said it was a serious crime to defraud an insurance company, but that Wilson has parental responsibilities for her son who was paralysed in an unrelated, serious traffic accident, and that it was on this basis that she avoided a prison term. O’Neill’s sister, Deirdre Mellor, 54, of Park na Gréine, Tallaght, was a passenger in one of the cars.
The court heard AXA Insurance conducted an investigation and established from social media that the parties in both cars knew each other. Mellor gave a statement which said she saw a woman in the other car but that she had not met her before. It transpired she was her brother’s partner and the mother of her nephew.