A man has been jailed for four years with the final three suspended after he falsely obtained almost €18,000 in social welfare payments under a dead man’s name.

Oleh Toropov, who is Ukrainian with an address at Ormond Street, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, entered Ireland under the name of a deceased Latvian man and proceeded to work for four years while paying tax under the false name.

After losing his job in 2012, Toropov began using the deceased’s name to claim social welfare benefits and rent allowance totalling €17,926.

Toropov, of Russian ethnicity, worked for a meat-processing firm and construction firm before losing his job, Nenagh Circuit Court heard. He claimed €7,344.50 in jobseeker’s benefit, €10,070 in jobseeker’s allowance, and €512 in rent allowance, gardaí said.

Gardaí found Polish, Russian, Romanian and Ukrainian passports upon searching his house and arresting him last December. An official fr- om the special investigations unit attached to the Department of Social Protection in Thurles had tipped off gardaí.

The court heard Toropov entered Ireland under a dead man’s name, worked under that name for four years and obtained a PPS number, which allowed him to fraudulently claim the payments. It was heard that he had two minor public order convictions under the dead man’s name.

Det Garda Declan O’Carroll accepted in court that Toropov had worked and paid taxes for four years. He also accepted he was sending money home to his family.

Judge Thomas Teehan said that while he could not order Toropov’s deportation, he expected it to be finalised within seven days of his jail term ending. The judge said he had “considerable sympathy” for the defendant, who “faces an uncertain future” in Ukraine.