Two people have been sentenced for their roles in conning a 90-year-old man was out of almost €25,000 in an online romance fraud.
Elizabeth Bello, aged 50, with an address at Creston Avenue in Finglas, and 26-year-old David O' Brien, from Farranasa, Emly, Co Tipperary, both admitted acting as "money mules" and allowing their bank accounts to be used for the fraud.
O’Brien also helped disperse some of the €40,000 stolen from an 80-year-old woman through invoice redirection fraud.
Both were given suspended sentences today.
The now 90-year-old man connected with what he thought was a woman on the dating site, match.com as part of "a romance". She told him she was a chef in the US navy, she had a daughter and that her partner had cheated on her.
She also told him she was due a €31m inheritance from her father which was being held in a bank in Dubai and she needed his help to retrieve it. He was sent a copy of a fake will.
She first persuaded the victim to hand over €2,800 for an anti-money laundering cert, this money was deposited in David O’Brien’s AIB account.
Then he was persuaded to hand over €24,516.13 for inheritance storage fees. This money was deposited in Bello’s Bank of Ireland account and dispersed. €13,400 was withdrawn with a card in a bank branch, €4,000 was used to buy sterling and €2,400 was withdrawn at four ATMs.
She also bought a Volvo S60 for €7,000.
The victim never got any of the money back.
The second victim is now 80 years old, and renovating a family home she was preparing to move into.
She thought she was in contact with a builder when she transferred a total of €50,000 to a bank account, €10,000 of which the bank recalled.
€6,300 was transferred to O’Brien’s account in three payments and all the money was subsequently withdrawn in amounts ranging from €600 to €1,500 before O’Brien closed the account in 2020.
In a victim impact statement, the woman said she felt very isolated, and her family still didn’t know what had happened to her. She’s lost €38,000.
Defence Counsel said O’Brien has an "educational background" and did two years on a sound engineering course. He also worked in a warehouse and has been badly affected by "an unspeakable tragedy" in his family and abused drugs and alcohol.
He was, the court heard, "not the beneficiary of the money" and "at the bottom rung of the ladder". Two people can control the account, and his account was being used.
The court also heard that Bello took the money out of her account and handed it to "a German named Kelly" and was to be paid €2,000. She has not been in contact with "Kelly" since.
Originally from the Ivory Coast, the mother-of-six came to Ireland 24 years ago.
Her defence counsel accepted she was "a complicit money mule" who knew what was going on.
Judge Crowe said the 90-year-old man was a victim of "an elaborate romance fraud" while the 80-year-old woman lost her confidence and a lot of money.
She said while neither O’Brien nor Bello set up the schemes and didn’t know each other, they allowed their accounts to be used.
O’Brien, she said, was reckless but played an important role, while Bello regrets her actions as a result of which her life has been turned upside down.
She sentenced Bello to two years in prison and David O’Brien to one year in prison with both sentences suspended.
