A consultant surgeon and his wife have gone on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court charged with defrauding two insurance companies of more than €700,000 by falsely claiming the woman had breast cancer.
Dr Emad Massoud (50) and Gehan Massoud (43), a nurse, Woodview, Brownstown, Ratoath, Co Meath, have pleaded not guilty to intent to defraud the companies by falsely pretending that Ms Massoud had suffered breast cancer.
They deny intent to defraud €685,658 from Scottish Provident Ltd on March 25th, 2002, through having that amount made payable to Permanent TSB and €45,338 on February 22nd, 2002, from Lifetime Assurance Company Ltd by having that sum transferred to their account at the Bank of Ireland in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Defence counsel John Peart SC, for Dr Massoud, and Cormac Ó Dúlacháin SC, for Ms Massoud, told Judge Patrick McCartan that their clients accepted both insurance policies were in existence and that they made a claim on each together, but they asserted that they were entitled to do so.
Prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn told the jury it was the State's case the charges arose from a fraud that both accused were involved in. He said a surgeon named by the couple as having carried out a lumpectomy on Ms Massoud, involving removal of tissue about the size of a golf ball, denied he had performed the surgery.
Mr McGinn said Dr Massoud wrote to Scottish Provident in November 2001 inquiring about making a claim on the basis that his wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
A claim form was returned that month detailing the surgery and the laboratory tests that confirmed the tissue was cancerous.
Mr McGinn said a doctor hired by Scottish Provident examined Ms Massoud in January 2002 and confirmed that she had a scar consistent with a lumpectomy.
The claim was successful and a cheque issued for €685,658 to the couple's mortgage lender, Permanent TSB, as it was assumed the money would be used to pay off their mortgage. Mr McGinn said it would be the State's case that the Massouds did not use this money to pay off their mortgage and Permanent TSB lodged the money to their joint account.
The Massouds then made a similar successful claim to the Life Assurance Company Ltd and €45,338 was transferred electronically to their joint account in the Bank of Ireland, Letterkenny.
Mr McGinn said that in May 2003 gardaí began to investigate the veracity of the claims and it was the prosecution's case that both claims were fraudulent.
He said it was noted that the lumpectomy was allegedly performed under local anaesthetic in a clinic when in fact it should have been carried out in a hospital under general anaesthetic.
The amount of tissue allegedly removed was too large and a smaller amount should have been taken first as a pre-operative biopsy. Ms Massoud's breast was not distorted as it should have been and it was considered "unusual" that she did not undergo post-operative treatment.
The trial continues.