Nephew Dress Up Dead Uncle, Then Carries Body Into Post Office To Claim His Pension

Two fraudsters reportedly carried the dead body of a 66-year-old man into a post office in an alleged bid to claim his pension in Ireland.

According to the Irish Independent, the elderly man, named locally as Peadar Doyle, may have been dead for up to two days when his corpse was carried into the post office on Friday, Jan. 22.

One of the fraudsters was Doyle’s nephew, Declan Haughney. He and his unidentified friend, both in their 30’s, went into the post office on Staplestown Road and tried to get his uncle’s pension money but staff told them they needed to see his next of kin or Doyle himself.

The duo then reportedly went to Doyle's home where they put a jumper over his face and a hat on his head. They then carried him along a public footpath into the post office and tried to claim his pension again.

An employee at the post office (Hosey's shop in County Carlow) got suspicious of Doyle’s appearance and raised concerns about his wellbeing, asking if he was sick.

The men reportedly told her that Doyle was having a heart attack and placed his body on the ground. The Gardaí and an ambulance were called to the scene as events unfolded.

According to the Sunday World, the men stayed at the post office until police arrived, making no attempt to escape.

The people who were in a queue outside the post office at the time had initially thought the man was having a heart attack.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, one woman, who did not wish to be named, said the elderly man looked unwell and that his feet were "dragging the ground".

"I feel awful for the staff. I've a 12-year-old daughter and I'm trying to explain to her what happened and sure where do you start? It's awful," she said.

According to reports, the men told Gardaí that Doyle was alive when they brought him into the post office. Haughney claims his uncle died suddenly while walking under a bridge at Pollerton Road, less than two minutes into the five-minute journey to the post office.

"This is no word of a lie, he started dragging his heels from you see the yellow sign that’s there?"

"But we didn’t even think of it as anything."

"We were grand like then all of a sudden he started going all slumpy."

"We thought nothing of it because Peadar had had heart attacks and all."

He said they were still holding Doyle when they got into the queue but when they let him go he "just dropped".

Haughney's friend claimed that Doyle became "heavier and heavier" that he "couldn't hold him anymore."

"The papers are saying he was already dead but that's bulls**t," Haughney's friend told the Sunday World."

"He was alive - 100 percent. We're hardly going to drag a dead man down the road, for f**k sake."

No arrests have been made so far but the Gardai said they had interviewed both men and recorded their statements.

"Gardaí are investigating all the circumstances of the discovery of the body of a male at a business premises in the Carlow area on the morning of Friday 21st January 2022," a Gardai spokesperson said.

"A post mortem of the deceased has been concluded. Post mortem results are not released for operational reasons."

"The focus of Garda inquiries is now on the ancillary events that took place at the business premises connected to the recent death of the male."

"No further information is available at this time."

On Jan. 24, when Doyle was laid to rest at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Carlow, Declan was photographed carrying his uncle’s coffin.

Mayor of Carlow, Ken Murnane, said: "I was absolutely shocked to hear about what happened."

"I cannot believe anyone would do something like that. It beggars belief, I'm just shocked."