Homeless Kildare man says he has been defrauded, now dole stopped

Things seem to be going from bad to worse for a homeless man in Naas who featured on our pages last month.

After he lost his photo ID earlier recently, it was allegedly used to fraudulently withdraw his dole from the post office, leading to his only payment being frozen until the gardaí complete their investigation.

“If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all … at least it didn’t rain last night!” he quipped.

“There have been no improvements in my circumstances since we last spoke, and in fact it’s got worse” ‘Kevin’ (not his real name) explained what happened recently.

“I lost my travel ID and it looks like someone went into the Post Office, and they paid out my money to a stranger,” he said.

“The post office is still claiming it’s not their fault, and they’ve refused to pay me and stopped my money again. It’s like someone up there has a grudge against me.

“The guards have investigated it and agree it is a fraud, but now my travel card is stopped, and so I’m stuck out here at the Johnstown Roundabout, because I can’t get to Newbridge where I sign on.

The man claimed the post office worker told him he would have to report it to a garda station.

“OK. I might have got a bit frustrated and began to raise my voice, and he said if I was going that way he wouldn’t be able to help me at all.

“I apologised because I couldn’t afford to not be able to get anything, so I called the guards from there but had to leave to collect my daughter from creche.

“So I left before they got there, but they confirmed an official report is going on at Naas Garda Station”.

Kevin (not his real name) has been living in a tent on the Johnstown roundabout alongside two others after being evicted nine months ago from Kerdiffstown for retaliating after his stuff was being ransacked.

Aged in his 20s, Kevin is originally from Kildare town but “I’m in Naas at the moment”.

“I’ve worked all my life since I was 16 and my last job was in Le Chateau behind the Courthouse,” he said.

“After I broke my hand I was out of work for four weeks, but the social would only pay out if you were unemployed for six weeks.

“I sign on in Newbridge but I collect from Naas Post Office because I live out at Johnstown roundabout.

“Every single time we’re the victim. The government look after everybody except their own.

“I’m lucky I have some friends who let me shower and that, and I’d be lost without them.

“I still get to see my kids, and I used to hand over all my dole for maintenance.

“The last time I was there I told my partner that if I couldn’t see my kids I’d get myself locked up where at least I get a roof over my head and three meals a day.

“I feel like I’m trying to build on quicksand.” Kevin said he had a mild heart attack last year and he has an enlarged heart.

“It’s called hypo-cardio myopathy, and it’s not helped by stress, I get dizzy and begin to see black spots, but I’m on medication for it.

“I go to the food bank in Naas and one of the women there reckons she saw my story in the Nationalist, even though you changed the name.

“I really don’t mind, because the more that know, the more might help.” Both An Garda Síochána and An Post have declined to comment on the allegations made in the story.