A ‘naive and stupid’ man who allowed fraudsters to use his bank account to store £20,000 of stolen cash has been left thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Ethan Robertson allowed a chain of conmen to use his bank account for gathering cash handed over by a victim of their scheme.
The then 19-year-old believed he’d make a “small amount of cash” by helping with the scam but wound up with £20,000 being paid into his account in August 2017.
That came after the fraudster’s victim, who believed he had been contacted by Barclays bank, was told to go to his local branch, transfer £20,000 and tell the staff there the cash was going into his son’s account.
Though Robertson didn’t actually make the call, some of that money went to his account.
Account number handed over during call
Fiscal depute Rebecca Thomson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court someone called the unsuspecting victim, referred to him by name and urged him to transfer £20,000 to another account.
“He thought he was genuinely speaking to the bank as it was a Barclays number,” the fiscal said. “He spoke to someone who introduced himself as coming from the fraud department.
“He said his account had been compromised and money had been taken from him. He told the man to make a transfer of funds to another account.”
They then gave the man Robertson’s account details.
Withdrew conned cash as Euros
The victim realised he’d been scammed and called police the next day – the same day that Robertson withdrew more than £5,000 of the money deposited in his account as foreign currency.
He took £2,242 worth of euros out at TUI travel agents in St Nicholas Street then a further £2,803 worth at Barrhead Travel in Union Square – handing over his passport as ID while doing so.
He spent around another £2,600 of the cash on other unknown goods.
Defence agent Chris Maitland said Robertson, now 23, had been “naive and stupid” but was “far, far, far from the top of the chain”.
“He allowed his account to be used by people in a far more serious position than him,” Mr Maitland said. “He didn’t benefit financially in any way from this. He is in fact still in debt because of it.”
‘He was extremely foolish’
He explained that by the time one of Robertson’s transactions of around £2,000 was cleared from the Post Office the bank had already reclaimed £12,736 from his account, leaving him around £2,000 overdrawn.
“He was naive,” Mr Maitland added. “He was extremely foolish and he didn’t really think about what he was involving himself in.
“He certainly didn’t know the extent of what he was involving himself in. He thought there would be a small amount of cash transferred and that he would make a small amount from it.
“To be absolutely clear he was far, far, far removed from the top of this chain.
“The people that were involved were 18 and 19-year-olds too. They are not the masterminds in this either. They are all just idiots that got involved.”
Robertson admitted a charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Handed ‘hefty financial penalty’
Sheriff Margeret Hodge said she understood Robertson had been “naive” and he had become involved in something “much bigger than you had any inkling of”.
She acknowledged he now works full-time and has kept out of trouble for the past four years since the offence but said a “hefty financial penalty” was only fair.
She fined Robertson, of Links View, Aberdeen, £600 but reduced that to £480 in light of his guilty plea.
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