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A DUTCH MAN who was jailed for four years for claiming over €225,000 in social welfare while living outside of Ireland has admitted to falsely claiming a further €18,000 in child benefit.
Leendert Stolk fraudulently used a school stamp while claiming child benefit for his two children between 2011 and 2018, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today.
Stolk (50), of Coppice Road, Worthing, Sussex, England, pleaded guilty to 22 sample counts of wrongfully claiming social welfare and four counts of using a false instrument.
He is currently 13 months into a four-year prison sentence for welfare fraud during the same period.
The child benefit fraud only came to light after Stolk’s wife was arrested in relation to it, the court heard. Stolk then made full admissions to gardaí.
Judge Patricia Ryan ordered that the fresh charges be taken into consideration, meaning Stolk’s prison sentence will remain the same.
The court previously heard that Stolk moved to Ireland with his family in 2009 and left the jurisdiction in late 2010.
He continued to make claims for jobseeker’s allowance, rent allowance, back-to-work allowance and back-to-school allowance for seven years after leaving the country, as well as the child benefit claims. He regularly returned to the country, often every two weeks, to claim the payments.
The court heard he used a stamp from a school in Meath when filling out the child benefit forms.
Letters redirected
Letters were sent to a house in the Dublin 15 area in which he resided while in Ireland and then redirected to his actual address outside of the country.
Authorities began investigating him in July 2018 when a letter was returned to the Department of Social Protection instead of being redirected and gardaí discovered that the house was in fact empty.
Stolk was asked to provide proof he did not have a redirection in place and handed over a fraudulent declaration he claimed was from An Post.
Including the child benefit claims, Stolk falsely claimed over €244,000 during the seven-year period.
Stolk, who is originally from the Netherlands, had no previous convictions prior to the fraud.
The court previously heard he was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and that, while living in South Africa, he was kidnapped and confronted by an armed intruder to his property on two separate occasions.
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Fair play young dude
We need to teach coding at a young age. Take religion out of primary school and introduce very basic programming to kids. It should also be availible for junior and leaving cert. I am learning C# at the moment and really regret i have not learnt to code at a younger age.
The poor kid , he is very young to be getting into the dog eat dog. We idolise tech “leaders” so much today , I hope he isn’t chewed up in the cogs
Is there an adult version of coder dojo anywhere? Don’t know if I would like to do it as a career but wouldn’t mind learning the basics. Coder dojo seems like a nice way to do that but don’t wana be shown up by a bunch of ten ye old! ;-)
Plenty of courses you can pay for. I’m not sure how many people will dedicate time to teach adults for free. Although there’s a huge amount of free courses online… Do a google for “mooc” to get started.
Didn’t realise coder dojo was free. Wouldn’t mind paying for a few casual classes but going as far as a night course seems a big commitment considering I know some people who did entire college courses and hated every minute. Will try some of the online options. Cheers.
edx.org have a brilliant free online course from Harvard cs50 i think its what it is called. Also FAS e collage do a great “Changing yyour carer to the I.T sector online. It prepares you to get a MTA qualification in Networking, Software development, or Database analysis. Its free if you are on job seekers and its not too expensive if you are working. I am doing both courses and they compliment each other very well.
Have a look at night classes in your local community schools. Usually quite cheap and no long term commitment. I think usually 8-10 weeks at about a tenner a week.
Best of luck, I really hope it works out for you.
And forget about people who did comp sci and hated it. Massive overgeneralisation here on my part but I find they only did comp sci ‘cos computers are easy’ without knowing what they were getting into. If you have the interest then you already have a much better chance of success than them!
Give this a lash Barry, http://www.codecademy.com
Maybe skip the HTML/CSS course and try the Javascript or one of the others first.
Thanks for all the help. Loads to look at there. Maybe the first thing I’ll do when I’m able to program is create an education comparison site! There’s so much out there, some offering certifications some just the training and knowledge.
In people’s experience if you can show that you can code and write your own programs/apps/websites whatever, do employers look for proof of training? Does someone in the workplace who may be just as able and “self” taught earn as much as someone who has a degree or diploma or does the lack of paperwork hold people back?
It’s helpful to have certifications in order to get the foot in the door but not essential. I’m self-learned and am an engineer in one of the biggest IT companies in the world. But I started at a technician in PC World.
There are also one year conversion courses you can do that might be worth looking into if you already have a level 8 degree in another area and are in the position where you can spend a year in college. As far as I know most of them are being paid for by the government because there’s a skills shortage.
Codecademy.com go learn a language… I bet you enjoy it and I bet you will want to learn more!!
This is a new one- I was expecting to read The Journal comments section had won the Nigerian lotto!!
CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH(C.A.C) CREDIT UNION
Email: cacinternationalloanfirm@gmail.com
Head office Address……Dalston 52 Ashwin Street F9 7DL, united states
========================================================================
Hello, I bring greetings from the Lord to everyone here. I am a senior pastor of C.A.C and a Zonal Overseer of C.A.C Credit Union. I am here to announce to you that C.A.C Credit Union is giving out secure and affordable special xmans loan package to all believer’s in Christ anywhere in the world both individuals and organization’s for as low as 3% interest rate for whatever purpose you want to use it for be it business or personal. C.A.C credit union was originally set up to assist all it’s members worldwide who may be going through some financial challenges to get a soft loan to meet up with their challenges. We know that as this year come to an end, all believer’s in Christ might be needing funds for various purposes. For this reason, we have decided to extend our loan services to both members and none members of C.A.C worldwide. We offer both personal and business loans with capital base between the amounts of $1,000.00 to $50,000,000.00 US Dollars Or GB Pounds. The most interesting thing is that NO COLLATERAL NEEDED. NO HIDDEN CHARGES. All you need do is get a third part PPI to secure your loan. Wow! God is telling you that it is not too late. you can still achieve what you want to achieve before the year ends. Grab this opportunity and make this year your year of financial breakthrough. Hurry now and and contact us via email ( cacinternationalloanfirm@gmail.com )
GOD BLESS YOU as I await to here from you
Rev. Dolphy Anderson
Zonal Overseer(C.A.C) Credit Union
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