Midlands chemist loses thousands of Euro in scam that used student's bank account

A recently retired woman, a restaurant owner, a pharmacist in the midlands, a shareholder in a water filtration company, and a crane hire and construction company were all tricked into putting money into a fraudster's bank account after hackers accessed their emails.

The account into which all the money was lodged - some of which was never recovered - was a Bank of Ireland account in the name of Michael Fakinle, with an address at Ballyboden in Rathfarnham, Dublin 16, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Now a 21-year-old student, he says that when aged 19, he allowed his account to be used by someone whose identity he has not revealed to gardai.

Judge Pauline Codd heard that the largest single amount of money, a retirement fund of €71,892.41 belonging to a recently retired woman in the southwest, was transferred into Fakinle's Bank of Ireland account.

For four days in May 2020, it remained there, apparently unnoticed by the criminals, and was retrieved before they could take it.

However, other sums of money ranging from €1,100 to €5,000 have not been recovered and the rightful owners are out of pocket, the court heard.

Fakinle pleaded guilty to five counts of handling property knowing it to be the proceeds of criminal conduct. He also pleaded guilty to a separate charge of money laundering.

Yesterday, Friday, October 14, Judge Codd noted in sentencing remarks that Fakinle was not a mastermind of the schemes but his role was to allow his account to be used, remove money and hand it over.

She said he was at a low level of offending but persons at the higher end require people willing to do these things and he had to interface with those people a number of times. She said he had acted in a highly reckless manner.

Judge Codd noted he did not want to name people involved for his own safety but said he had allowed himself to become involved with people of that nature despite having no convictions and no prior involvement with criminality.

She took into account the contents of a probation report outlining he was at low risk of reoffending, as well as his mental health and other issues. She noted he was engaging with services and attending counselling.

Judge Codd imposed concurrent sentences totalling three and a half years which she suspended for four years on strict conditions. She ordered that €1,000 Fakinle had gathered be divided among the injured parties.

At a sentencing hearing last May Detective Garda Shane Whelan told David Perry BL, prosecuting, that in May 2020, a shareholder in a water filtration company received an email from the company seeking funds to assist with cashflow.

He phoned the company and said he was willing to provide a €5,000 loan to help the company with their difficulty.

However, the email to him had been hacked and, following this, the man received another email asking him to lodge the €5,000 promised, not into the company's account but into a Bank of Ireland account, for which details were provided.

The man lodged the money to this account, which was Fakinle's account. When he was later told by the company that the money had not been received, he called gardai. The €5,000 has never been recovered and the man is out of pocket for it.

In another case, a restaurant owner in Kinsale made a legitimate insurance claim and, in March 2021, €1,339 was paid out.

However, an early email exchange between him and the insurance company had been hacked. This allowed the hackers to ask to lodge the money into Fakinle's account.

The money has also never been recovered.

Another victim, a chemist in a midlands town, was tricked into transferring €3,251 into Fakinle's account in April 2020. It too has never been recovered.

In the same month, a construction company in Donegal was tricked into paying a fraudulent invoice for €1,100. This sum has also not been recovered.

As a result of the near loss of the woman's pension fund, gardai investigated Fakinle's bank account and found the other questionable transactions. When questioned by gardaí in February 2021, he made admissions.

He told gardai he had been approached by someone who asked to use his account. He said his role was to take money that had been lodged into the account and hand it over to another person. He did not identify this person because he claimed to be in fear of them, Det Garda Whelan told the court.

The alleged deal was that Fakinle would receive some of the money himself. He claimed not to have received any money and he maintained he did not initiate any frauds or send emails. He had €500 in court as compensation for his victims, the court heard.

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Det Garda Whelan agreed with Rónán Prendergast BL, defending, that Fakinle had co-operated with the investigation into the fraud, which was uncovered because of the attempted theft of the woman's retirement fund.

Mr Prendergast said Fakinle accepted what he had done was wrong and pleaded guilty at an early stage. He had only made "a few hundred euros", the barrister said.

Defence counsel said Fakinle attended Dublin Technical University where he was studying digital marketing.