William Hay’s brother in law pleads guilty to expenses fraud charges
THE brother-in-law of former DUP Assembly speaker Willie Hay has admitted a catalogue of charges of almost £9,000 when he faced Derry Magistrates’ Court today.
Disgraced William ‘Bill’ Irwin, from Duncastle Road Newbuildings, faced a total of 23 charges when he appeared in the dock of the dock.
The charges relate to dates between March 2009 until February 2014.
The former DUP councillor is accused of making a false claim to the Northern Ireland Assembly for payment towards heating oil expenditure.
The total amount involved in the scam was £8,960.
The court was told he had heating oil delivered to his home and was invoicing it through the DUP constituency office of Willie Hay at Ebrington Terrace in Derry.
A prosecution lawyer said it was therefore being paid out of the public purse through the Assembly.
Irwin’s defence barrister said his client was instructed to enter a plea of guilty in relation to all the charges.
During the period of the offences, Irwin was a constituency office worker in the DUP’s main Waterside office.
He had previously represented the party on Derry City Council from 1993 until 1997.
The defendant will be sentenced for the offences on 1 April following the preparation of a pre-sentence report.
The charges arose following a BBC NI Spotlight investigation into the fraudulent misuse of expenses by MLAs.
He faces a maximum of six months imprisonment on each charge as he is being sentenced in the magistrates’ court.
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