The Department has issued warnings over “circumvention” and fraud within the multi-billion-euro farm payment system. Stock image: Getty
From applications submitted for farmers who had been dead for years to digital paper trails linking 10 supposedly independent farms to a single contact email address, the Department of Agriculture’s Anti-Fraud Unit has unveiled a catalog of deception in its clampdown on fraud and “circumvention” within farm subsidies.
In one brazen case, an applicant provided a geo-tagged photo to claim a TAMS grant for new machinery, only for inspectors to find a completely different, decades-old model sitting in the yard instead .