A man who dragged his uncle's corpse to a post office to collect his pension insisted he 'didn't know he was dead'.
Declan Haughney, 40, claimed he was not trying to rob Peadar Doyle, 66, after he and his friend Gareth Coakley propped the pensioner up for five minutes between his home and Hosey's post office in Carlow, Ireland, 50 miles south of Dublin.
Former drug addict Mr Haughney admitted he previously stole from his aunt.
He said people in his hometown were alleging he had murdered his uncle and tried to rob him because 'I [have] done it before'.
Declan Haughney, 40, said he was 'not an eejit' and claimed he was not trying to rob his uncle Peadar Doyle, 66. He was 'attacked' and left with a black eye after the strange incident. Mr Haughney said people thought he had robbed his uncle because he was previously jailed for stealing from his aunt
However, Mr Haughney protested his innocence and said he was 'not an eejit'.
'Am I cuckoo? Am I cuckoo? I'm not,' he told the Irish Mirror.
He said: 'Why would I want to rob my uncle? I'm 40 years of age yeah, I'm not a child, I'm not a young fella.
'I'm not an eejit to walk into Hoseys with a dead man and collect his money.'
Mr Haughney said 15 years ago he stole his aunt's bank card and pin when it came by post and served two years in jail for fraud.
However, he said he has been drug-free for three years and had nothing to do with his uncle's death.
Declan Haughney (left) and Gareth Coakley (right) dragged Mr Doyle to Hosey's post office in Carlow to claim the 66-year-old's pension
'I'm off the gear three years and doing well,' he added.
Mr Haughney said he accepted Mr Doyle might have already died before they reached the post office.
The 40-year-old also claimed he was attacked and suffered a black eye following the incident at the post office last Friday.
He and his friend Mr Coakley were called fraudsters after they carried Mr Doyle's corpse to a post office in an alleged bid to claim his pension, in scenes reminiscent of the 1989 film Weekend At Bernie's.
Pictured: Gardaí take the body of the man, named locally as Peadar Doyle, from Hosey's shop in County Carlow, Ireland after 'fraudsters' allegedly tried to claim his pension on Friday morning, putting a jumper over his face and a hat on his head
In the dark comedy movie, a pair of insurance salesmen lug around the body of their murdered boss - pretending he's still alive - and lose and recover his corpse, which is clothed and wearing tinted glasses, several times.
Irish police were investigating whether the elderly man may have been dead for up to two days when the grim incident took place.
The 'fraudsters' had put a jumper over Mr Doyle's face and a hat on his head.
The men had told staff that the pensioner was having a heart attack when questioned about his wellbeing and placed the body on the ground. Pictured: Gardaí outside the shop in County Carlow yesterday
The fraudsters' actions had echoes of the 1989 film Weekend At Bernie's. In the dark comedy movie, a pair of insurance salesmen lug around the body of their murdered boss -
