The corpse of a 66-year-old man was carried to a post office by two fraudsters in an alleged bid to claim his pension, in scenes reminiscent 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 - pretending he's still alive - and lose and recover his corpse, which is clothed and wearing tinted glasses, several times.  

Irish police are investigating whether the elderly man, named locally as Peadar Doyle, may have been dead for up to two days when yesterday morning's incident took place.  

The fraudsters, one of whom knew the 66-year-old well, had put a jumper over Mr Doyle's face and a hat on his head.

Both men, who were in their 30s, went into the post office and tried to get the money but staff told them they needed his next of kin there or Mr Doyle himself.