A pharmacist has been handed unpaid work after being “fooled” into laundering money for bank scam fraudsters.
Jannath Nilma was tricked by an acquaintance, who turned out to be a fraudster, into letting him use her bank account for the con.
The scammer had told the 25-year-old he was going on holiday and needed access to funds, however was unable to have money he was owed transferred to his account.
Nilma agreed to let money be deposited into her account before exchanging it into euros and giving it to the man’s friend.
However, unbeknownst to her, the male had posed as a bank employee and telephoned a customer, warning him his account had been “compromised” and advising him to transfer cash into a safe account – Nilma’s.
The court accepted Nilma had no involvement in the fraud itself, and stood to make no financial gain, but despite her solicitor requesting an absolute discharge, Sheriff Eric Brown ordered her to carry out unpaid work.
‘By this time the trail had gone cold’
Nilma previously admitted a charge of using criminal property in that cash was paid into her account and withdrawn by her.
Sheriff Eric Brown told Nilma, of Elmbank Terrace, Aberdeen: “You pled guilty to a charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act, one of the money laundering provisions of the 2002 act. The charge was in respect of the use of criminal property.”
As he sentenced her to 135 hours of unpaid work as a direct alternative to custody, he outlined the facts of the case.
He said: “The background to this offence is that on March 9 2019, an individual, a customer at a bank, received a phone call from someone who claimed to be from that customer’s bank.
“The caller claimed the customer’s bank account had been compromised and advised the customer to transfer funds to another account, the account number and sort code of which the caller gave to the customer.
“On the basis of the call, the customer transferred £14,000 to that account, and that account was your account.
“Only after the transfer had gone through did the customer realise he was the victim of a scam.”
‘You were frank with the police officers’
Sheriff Brown stressed that there was no suggestion that Nilma was party to the fraud.
He said: “You were persuaded by an individual to allow that individual to have funds due to him transferred to your account.
“He said he was going on holiday and required access to funds, but could not have funds transferred to his account.
“At his request you went to a Bureau de Change and took, in euros, £2,500 from your account and you were then asked to repeat the process on a further two occasions, totalling £7,500.
“You received further communications to proceed to an address on George Street and hand over the funds to a friend of his, a man you did not know, and this you did.
“Almost exactly a year later you were arrested and I’m informed that in interview you were frank with the police officers.”
‘She made no financial gain whatsoever’
It is understood the victim of the scam was repaid the funds lost.
Defence agent Ian Woodward-Nutt had urged the court to consider an absolute discharge for his client, meaning the matter would not result in a conviction on her record.
He said Nilma’s career could be seriously impacted by a conviction.
Mr Woodward-Nutt went on: “There is absolutely no suggestion by the Crown that Ms Nilma was in any way part of the fraud that took place.
“The fact that the third party who fooled her into unwittingly taking part in this already knew her bank details made her an obvious target.
Nilma ‘targeted’ by fraudsters due to her ‘compassion’
“The accused’s level of culpability was very low. A mark of her level of culpability, her naivety perhaps, was that on each occasion she withdrew funds, she provided proof of her name and address and her driving licence.
“She made no financial gain whatsoever, nor, tellingly, was it ever offered.
“She thought she was simply helping out an acquaintance.
“The accused is a very caring person who has demonstrated in her professional and personal life a strong commitment to helping others.
“That is a reflection of her as an individual and a reflection of her religious and cultural background.
“Tragically, it is this compassion and willingness to help that likely formed the reason why Ms Nilma was targeted to be part of this incident.”
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