Woman allowed bank account to be used for 'complex scam' 

Defendant received conditional discharge after a court heard her naivety was used against her

Felicia Junaid, aged 20, from Ennis, Co Clare appeared before Bandon District Court on a charge of money laundering. Picture: Larry Cummins

A woman who pleaded guilty to allowing her bank account and passport to be used by others in a "very complex scam" has received a conditional discharge after a court heard her naivety was used against her.

Felecia Junaid, aged 20, appeared before Bandon District Court on a charge of money laundering after gardaí found that others had intercepted an email exchange between a woman in Kinsale and the caretaker of her property in France, and then defrauded her of thousands of euro.

Ms Junaid, of 24 Westbourne Court, Watery Road, in Ennis in Co Clare, had first pleaded guilty to the charge in April.

She returned to court in Bandon for sentencing, with Judge James McNulty also receiving a written victim impact statement from the injured party in which she said: “It changes your world.” 

In the statement, the woman said she was “shocked” to discover her bank account had been hacked, describing it as “a horrible feeling”. 

She said such an incident “takes away your trust” and that it was “depressing” that money that she had worked so hard for had been taken.

In April, the court had heard that on June 26, 2019, the woman in Kinsale had received an email from the caretaker of a property she owns in France to say that she owed maintenance costs of €2,479.93 and that this was to be deposited to a PTSB account.

This email was intercepted, however, and on the following day, June 27, the woman received another email from a very similar email address to the one from which the first email was sent, but with one letter missing. That email asked the woman to deposit the maintenance fee for the same amount into a Bank of Ireland account instead. The email included the relevant BIC and IBAN numbers.

On August 30, 2019, the woman reported a fraudulent transaction from her AIB account and gardaí began investigating.

They learned that the account to which the money had been transferred had been opened in the name of Ms Junaid and that her passport had been used to open it. When the funds had been withdrawn from that account it was then closed.

The judge was told that on December 2 last, gardaí from Kinsale met Ms Junaid by appointment at Ennis Garda Station.

Ms Junaid had told gardaí that she had given the details of her bank account to three men, one of whom she knew personally. She didn't ask what they were going to use the account for and was told by the men never to check the account.

The court heard she had been promised a financial reward but had never received it, and that she was shocked when she later discovered her account had been used for a scam.

Ms Junaid’s solicitor, Myra Dinneen, reiterated that her client had been very naive and had been taken advantage of by people she had trusted.

“I think she was out of her depth,” Ms Dinneen said.

Judge McNulty was told that AIB had fully compensated the injured party and that Ms Junaid had assisted the Garda investigation.

Ms Junaid, who was accompanied by her father and aunt, is currently studying and wants to be a social worker, and truly regretted what had happened, the judge heard. She had also fully complied with the Probation Service.

Judge McNulty said he would deal with the case by means of a conditional discharge for three years, describing it as “an opportunity to be good and to make good”.