AN AMERICAN who used seven different Irish identities, including those of six dead babies, to facilitate an €83,200 insurance fraud has been jailed for four years.
Jeremy Cochran (36), who is originally from Texas, obtained the birth certificates of the children who had died shortly after birth in 1975 and used these to get PPS numbers, passports and bank accounts in their names. He also stole the identity of a seventh man who is still alive.
Garda Sgt Catharina Gunne agreed with Paul Carroll, prosecuting, that the parents of these children were very upset that their baby’s names had been used in this way.
The court heard that the offence involved three insurance frauds in which Cochran claimed to have been knocked down by a motorist.
His Polish wife and Irish girlfriend were named in two separate claim forms as the person who had knocked him down.
Sgt Gunne agreed with Mr Carroll that both were effectively accomplices and willing participants in the fraud though they are not charged.
Cochran, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 11 charges, which included making false insurance claims and falsely obtaining passports and PPS numbers. They were representative of 35 charges.
Sgt Gunne said Cochran had a number of previous convictions from America which included short jail terms for theft of services and forgery. There were five outstanding warrants for his arrest but no extradition proceedings had started yet.
She said Cochran met Irish woman Denise Ward on a ranch in Colorado and he returned to Ireland with her in 2002. She was one of the women subsequently used in a false insurance claim.
Cochran was arrested in Dublin airport on January 13th, 2011, after staff at the passport office became suspicious when he attended there for an urgent passport. They contacted gardaí and CCTV footage was used to identify him. He gave his name as John Gibney at the airport and had documents relating to two other identities, Michael Barrett and John Martin, in his luggage. Cochran has been remanded in custody since.
Judge Martin Nolan described Cochran as “a quite determined and probably intelligent fraudster” and said he had used “quite a degree of commitment” to obtain the identities.
He noted that Cochran had not used all the identities in the false claims but was effectively “laying the foundations for further fraud” in obtaining passports and PPS numbers in their names.
“These offences were committed with intention and forethought. He must have been a quite convincing man with a certain degree of nerve and charm,” Judge Nolan said before he jailed Cochran for four years.
Sgt Gunne said the first claim was made to Zurich Insurance in which Cochran named himself as John Martin and said he had been knocked down in the Curragh on October 25th, 2006, by Denise Ward. The claim was successful and the insurance company paid out €27,700.
The second one involved a claim with Quinn Insurance in which Cochran, using the name Kevin Casey, claimed he had been knocked down by Joanna Patton, his wife, on April 24th, 2008. The claim was again successful and he was paid out €40,000.
The insurance companies were not aware of Cochran’s relationship to the two women.
Sgt Gunne said Mr Casey was the only name used by Cochran of a person who was still alive. Mr Casey told gardaí how annoyed he was about his identity being stolen and that it caused him problems when he tried to get his passport renewed.
The final claim was again to Zurich Insurance in which Cochran said he had been knocked down on November 18th, 2008. He received €15,500.