Judge defers sentencing of man whose bank account was used in scam

A man prevented over €18,000 from being laundered after it was transferred into his account following a fraudulent email correspondence, a court has heard.

Alexander Cribbin (21) gave his bank details to a friend, but realised things were not “legitimate” when the money was transferred into his account and he subsequently refrained from accessing it.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that because the accused man did not access the funds, it had been possible for the of the man who had been defrauded out of the money to recall the money. The bank then returned it to the doctor to whom it belonged.

The doctor had lodged the money to Cribbin’s account after an exchange of emails with a person who he believed to have been his pension broker.

Cribbin of Woodford Downs, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to possession of the proceeds of criminal conduct within the state on November 1st, 2019. He has no previous convictions.

Detective Garda Cathal Feeley told John Berry BL, prosecuting, that the doctor had arranged with the person he believed to be the pension broker to lodge slightly in excess of €18,000 to a bank account.

However, Det Gda Feeley said the emails were actually being received by a third party who provided the doctor with the bank details of the accused man.

The doctor later made contact with the person he thought he had been dealing with and she told him she had not sent any emails. The doctor put in a request to recall the money which was successful due to the actions of Cribbin, the court heard.

In interview with gardaí, Cribbin said he had been approached by a friend who had made money in “trading” and asked to use his bank account. Cribbin gave his friend the bank details, but was later contacted via Snapchat by a person he did not know who told him his account was to be used for a transaction.

Cribbin told gardaí­ that when he saw the amount of money that was transferred into his account he realised it was not “legitimate”. He said he was in Paris at the time and made a point of not using the account for the remainder of the trip.

The court heard that nobody other than Cribbin had access to the account in order to withdraw the money and because no funds were spent by him, the full amount was able to be successfully recalled by the bank.

Det Garda Feeley said he believed that Cribbin would not have withdrawn the money from his account had he been asked.

Judge Nolan said that it seemed by the accused’s actions the money “could never have been taken from the account”. He said for that reason he would give the accused “leniency”.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed a €100 fine and adjourned the matter until December 9th.

He said that Cribbin must be of good behaviour until that date and indicated he would impose a sentence of six months’ imprisonment if the accused did not abide by that condition.