A man who posed as a street beggar and conned two pensioners in to parting with their life savings of hundreds of thousand of euro amid claims that he needed cancer treatment abroad has been jailed for six years.
Brudut Iosca (38) of Relic Road, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath squandered over €300,000 on gambling after he secured the funds from two separate pensioners who took pity on him after he repeatedly told them tales of woe.
His lies included being evicted from his house, having a sick parent overseas and having life threatening cancer himself.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard that Mr Iosca, who has lived in Ireland for 20 years and is both a father and grandfather, had conned a 69-year-old man out of his life savings of €207,750 on dates from October 2017 to August 2018.
Loans
The man approached Bandon Garda Station in West Cork in September 2018 seeking advice about what he thought was the friendship he had built up with the Romanian man.
Sgt Ailish Murphy told the court that the pensioner informed gardai that he had given a man loans of over €200,000 that year.
The impacted man raised the alarm when Mr Iosca, who gave him a false alias, sought a further sum of over €100,000 to redeem a house in Serbia. He had told the man he would pay him back sums owed through the overall sale of the house.
He tricked the victim with various “sob stories” including that he was in dire straits and facing eviction.
He claimed to be Serbian national and said he had had a hard life in his country. The man even received a fake email purporting to come from a Serbian solicitor involved in the sale of the house.
Second victim
The court heard that the man built up what he thought was a rapport with Iosca with the defendant even having him for dinner at his home in Westmeath at one point.
The garda investigation involved analysis of Mr Iosca’s bank documents. During the course of the probe gardai discovered a second victim of the con man.
A woman in her seventies had been approached by Iosca when he was begging on the streets of Dun Laoghaire. He claimed he was from Iran and gave a false name.
He repeatedly contacted her alleging he was in financial difficulties. The lady started paying him monthly installments.
He preyed on the pensioner from 2012 to 2019 at one point telling her he needed money to go overseas to the funeral of his mother. Garda enquiries later determined that his mother was alive and well and living in Ireland.
Cancer claims
In 2017 the payments escalated when he contacted the woman claiming he he had cancer and needed treatment abroad. She had given him her life savings at that point and took out a loan of €15,000 which she is still paying back in installments of over €300 a month. The man managed to con the woman out of €123,000 over the seven year period.
A garda enquiry established that the man was in receipt of €3,000 a month in benefits from the State including disability and free travel. He also had a medical card.
Sgt Murphy said that Mr Iosca was never destitute and had on no occasion fallen behind on his rent. He was in receipt of rent allowance from the State.
Gardai searched Mr Iosca’s home in Westmeath in March 2019 where they found documentation linked to his scam. He was not present when they went to the house.
His partner claimed that he was overseas looking after his mother who had had surgery.
Callous
Following Garda surveillance he was subsequently arrested at his brother’s house in Blanchardstown in July of 2019. He admitted that he had never had cancer or needed medical treatment abroad.
Sgt Murphy told the court that Iosca “squandered the cash as fast as it was received” on gambling. She said he had targeted people while begging on the streets and that he had callously “perfected his craft over a seven year period.”
Defence barrister, Tom Creed, SC, said that his client had entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity avoiding what would have been a long and complicated trial.
Judge Sean O’Donnabhain read said that the victims were “devastated” by the behaviour of the defendant.
He told the court that Iosca had left the pensioners “humiliated, degraded and impoverished.”
He added that the “bunch of sob stories” Iosca had concocted had led to two innocent and kindly people extending charity to him. He jailed Iosca for six years.
Iosca had pleaded guilty to six sample counts of deception.
