The Arts Council says it considered the “artistic merit” of funding applications submitted by serial fraudster Samantha Cookes and did not factor in previous criminal convictions.
Cookes, who moved to Ireland from the UK in 2013, secured €36,250 in Arts Council grants between 2021 and 2022.
She had been convicted of four fraud counts and one count of deception at a court in Fermoy, Co Cork, in May 2021.
Cookes, who is of no fixed abode, was last week sentenced to four years in prison with the final year suspended, having pleaded guilty to deception and theft charges. The 36-year-old admitted stealing more than €60,000 from the State by pretending to have an illness to claim social welfare.
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At Tralee District Court Judge Ronan Munro said Cookes exploited the “natural goodness of people” by pretending she had Huntington’s disease to obtain social welfare money.
Cookes, who is a serial fraudster, has been known by several different names, including Jade O’Sullivan and Carrie Jade Williams.
The court heard the UK national has five previous convictions of a similar nature in this jurisdiction, including posing as a psychologist and taking money for sick children to take a trip to Lapland that did not occur.
Cookes won an essay writing competition run by the Financial Times and a division of Penguin Random House in 2020 under the name Carrie Jade Williams.
She received her Arts Council funding under the name Jade Cooke.
In a statement issued to RTÉ News, the Arts Council said it determined Cookes’s application on artistic merit.
“The artistic merit of applications is rigorously reviewed. A criminal conviction would not necessarily be a barrier to consideration of an application with artistic merit. Therefore, the issue of criminal conviction is not part of an application process,” the statement said.
The Arts Council confirmed it has not modified its grant aid processes since Cookes received her two grants. However, the processes are “under continuous review”.
The statement added that a “declaration of assurance” signed by the applicant and by one other “responsible person” who is involved in the funding is a requirement when a grant is being allocated.
Cookes was awarded €21,250 under the Literature Project Award in 2022 and €15,000 under the Language Bursary Award in 2021.
Applications go through a number of stages including a shortlisting phase and reviews by external peer-led panels.
The Arts Council was contacted today in relation to the statement issued to RTÉ. No reply has been forthcoming to date.
Meanwhile, in 2020, Cookes was announced as a writer in residence at the Irish Writers Centre at Cill Rialaig in south Kerry.
She was previously convicted in the UK of a pregnancy surrogacy scam.
Cookes was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after she admitted fraud by false representation in 2011.
