Romanian jailed for ATM fraud

A Romanian man who stole cash from a Dublin ATM with cloned credit cards has been sentenced to three years in jail with the final 18 months suspended.

A department store security man followed Teofil Blandu (aged 35) to a pub after observing him act suspiciously around a second floor ATM in Henry Street’s Debenhams.

Blandu, with an address at Dun Saithne Crescent, Flemington Lane, Balbriggan, immediately handed over nine Easons cards from his wallet when gardaí arrived on the scene.

Garda Lisa Young revealed that cloned English credit card details had been uploaded onto magnetic strip on the backs of the cards.

Blandu pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to six counts of having false credit cards under his control at Liffey Street Lower on April 21, 2009 and to possessing a card skimming device at his home on the same date.

He has eight minor road traffic convictions in Ireland and three for traffic and theft related offences in Romania from 1999.

Gda Young told Mr Kerida Naidoo BL, prosecuting, that Debenhams security staff called her and a colleague to view CCTV footage of a second floor AIB ATM after noticing suspicious activity around it on April 13, 2009.

Gda Young said the ATM’s internal audit roll, which lists all transactions carried out at the cash point, detailed six withdrawals of €300 from six different credit cards around the same time CCTV captured three men acting suspiciously at the machine.

The garda told Mr Naidoo that she went to AIB’s Fraud Prevention department and spoke with an official who confirmed that over 25 credit cards had been used at the Debenhams ATM to withdraw cash during the 40 minutes the men had been at the machine, but that many of these attempts had been unsuccessful due to cards being cancelled in the UK.

Gda Young said she got a call on April 21, 2009 after a Debenhams security man spotted Blandu at the cash point and followed him to a nearby pub.

Gda Young said Blandu immediately admitted withdrawing €1,185 from the ATM and handed over nine Easons cards which contained details of Halifax and Lloyds TSB visa cards on the magnetic strips.

The garda revealed she found a card skimming machine under Blandu’s bed during a raid on his home later that day but said the father-of-one claimed he had been holding it for another person.

Gda Young said she also found memory cards, three SIM cards, six mobile phones, magnetic strips and wirings at various locations on the premises, including the attic.

She said Blandu admitted withdrawing €1,185 cash from the ATM over five or six visits to the machine that day using fraudulent credit cards.

She said she found a total of 29 cloned credit cards on Blandu, between the ones he handed over at the scene and more found on him during a later search at the garda station.

She said he told her he’d been given the cards and the card skimmer by a third party, whom gardaí hope to prosecute in future.

Gda Young agreed with Mr Dean Kelly BL, defending, that his client had co-operated in a “mannerly and polite” fashion on Liffey Street and that he had not been the “main mastermind” in the operation, though he was not on the “lowest rung of the ladder”.

She further agreed that card details had been “harvested” elsewhere, stored digitally and uploaded onto other cards.

Mr Kelly submitted to Judge Patricia Ryan that his client had lived in Ireland permanently since 1999 apart from time spent briefly in Romania after he split with the mother of his child.

He submitted that Blandu had worked for a number of years at a Baldoyle recycling plant and then had casual work as a delivery man.

He submitted that his client found it difficult to get work on his return to Ireland and made a “foolish and dishonest decision when offered the chance to make easy money.”

He submitted to Judge Ryan that Blandu didn’t seek to delay his court case and hasn’t come to adverse garda attention since.

The judge took into consideration Blandu’s early guilty plea and full co-operation but said the case warranted a custodial sentence.

She suspended the final 18 months of the three year sentence for a period of three years and directed that the €185 found on Blandu at Liffey Street be confiscated by the State.