‘HORRIFIC’ | 

Couple who had €180k stolen speak out as money mule avoids jail for role in scam

“Instead of contacting colleagues and friends I had worked with over many years on my last day, I was in a Belgian police station shaking and giving a statement about the loss of our savings.”

Today at 18:24

An Irish couple retiring from Brussels who had nearly €180,000 stolen from them as they bought a house in Co Meath have described the experience as “horrific”, after a money mule involved in the fraud was given a three-year suspended sentence.

The couple had arranged to buy a house using the services of a solicitor to handle the legal aspects of the sale.

In December 2020, they received an email they believed was from their solicitor seeking payment of €177,100 into a Bank of Ireland account which would be used as part payment for the property.

But the solicitor’s account had been hacked by scammers, and the communication was a fraudulent one, meaning the couple unknowingly paid the money into an account that was controlled by a criminal gang.

The fraud only came to light when the solicitor realised their email system had been compromised.

“At the time this incident occurred we were living and working in Brussels. It was in the middle of lockdowns due to the Covid-pandemic,” said the woman.

“There were no vaccines yet and it was a very difficult time for everyone.

“Brussels had been our home for over 20 years, but we could not travel back to Ireland to visit my elderly parents – in particular, to see my mother who had a life-altering stroke that July.

“The plan was to have a home in Ireland and to set up base so I could spend time with my parents and assist my siblings in caring for my mother. I was retiring from work to have the time to care for her.

“So, in December 2020, my husband and I were buying a property in Ireland. We had found a place we liked and were proceeding with the legal work.

“However, in a phone call to our solicitor, it became apparent that we had been the victims of an invoice re-direct fraud. Basically, our solicitor’s email had been taken over by fraudsters. Those fraudsters then sent us an email in the solicitor’s name, enclosing an invoice, requesting we transfer funds. We were expecting such a request as part of the house purchase.

“The invoice was on our solicitor’s letterhead. However, the account number on this invoice was not that of our solicitor but of a money mule.

“Being a money mule is not harmless. There is always a victim and this time it was us. The 18th of December 2020, the day I retired, should have been a celebration of my working life. We had so much to look forward to.

“Instead of contacting colleagues and friends I had worked with over many years on my last day, I was in a Belgian police station shaking and giving a statement about the loss of our savings.

“What was anyway going to be a very difficult Christmas, our first away from our Irish families due to Covid restrictions, was absolutely horrific.”

After the couple told Belgium police, they in turn contacted An Garda Síochána, and the bank accounts to which the money was diverted was frozen. At that stage €15,000 had been transferred from it, but gardaí were able to retrieve all the funds after 16 days.

The account used was that of Mark Farley, a 42-year-old father of one from Belgard Road in Tallaght, who was yesterday sentenced to three years in jail for his role as a “money mule” for the criminal gang. The sentence was suspended in full.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of money laundering.

Judge Martin Nolan heard evidence from Detective Garda Eimhear Keeshan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) that Farley was arrested when investigations revealed the bank account the money was paid into was his.

During interviews he said he had suffered addictions in the past, but had overcome them and set up a successful electrical business.

However, he sustained a work injury which required surgery after which he was prescribed the synthetic opiate-based Oxycontin drug which led him to relapse on to heroin.

This in turn led to addiction, the break-up of his relationship and him owing money to drug dealers.

The court heard that criminals involved in drug distribution then took over his apartment and the details of his bank account which he had set up for business use, and that while Farley had no input into the fraudulent email, it was his bank account that the proceeds of it was lodged into.

Det Gda Keeshan agreed with counsel for Farley that while he would get some benefit from the criminal gang for handing over access to his account, Farley was not the beneficiary of the funds that were diverted into it.

Judge Nolan said Farley had “good mitigation” and took his guilty plea into consideration when sentencing him, but said he must have known that his bank account would be used for criminal activity when he handed over its access to others.

The victim has said the crime has affected her and her family in a number of ways.

“There was an initial state of shock and high anxiety at the loss of our life’s savings. We were devastated and in total shock,” said the woman.

“The idea of losing our money in one simple move was very frightening. We were feeling scared of unknown people who had our solicitor’s email and access to our details and the address of our prospective new home.

“As a result of these traumatic events, we pulled out of our house purchase, too afraid of these unknown criminals, as the address of the house was mentioned in the emails. We could not proceed knowing all the information was out there in the hands of criminals.

“I felt significant levels of fear. A hyper-vigilance with a complete loss of trust in email had replaced the initial state of shock and disbelief.

“Eventually it started to affect my sleep and general mental health. I engaged a therapist and that has helped me to begin to move on from this horrible experience. Even now when a website asks do I want to save password or credit card details, I want to shout, “Not on your life”.

“I’m telling this story to raise awareness of this type of crime. I want to ensure it doesn’t happen to another person and also to make people aware that being a money mule is a crime.

“It is stealing: no different to entering someone’s home and stealing property or robbing a bank. Prospective money mules need to be aware of this. It impacts innocent people’s lives.

“And as with all crime, there is always a victim. To put it another way, this crime is not possible without money mules.”