A Bank of Ireland cashier who used an illegal magnetic data skimmer - leading to almost €320,000 being taken from 87 customer accounts - has been given a suspended sentence.
Darren McComiskey, 24, Thornville Road, Kilbarrack, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing the account details and pin numbers from customers he served during his employment at the bank's College Green branch.
Detective Sergeant Paul Curtis said McComiskey passed on the account details to two eastern European men who took a total of €319,641 from the 87 accounts.
The fraudulent transactions took place between 31 October, 2006 and 14 February, 2007 and came to light when a number of customers contacted the bank to report that unauthorised sums of money had been taken from their accounts.
The court was told that customers wishing to withdraw money had handed their cards to McComiskey who swiped them twice - once through the bank's legitimate computer software and once through his own machine which recorded their account information.
In order to authorise the withdrawals, the customers then entered their pin numbers onto the bank's electronic pad and this was observed by McComiskey who jotted down the numbers into a note pad.
McComiskey downloaded all the information he had recorded onto a computer and new bank cards duplicating the information were produced.
Judge Martin Nolan said McComiskey was a very weak individual who was easily led and this was his first offence.
He imposed a three year sentence which he suspended for five years on condition he keeps the peace and remains out of trouble in that time.
