Engineer jailed for part in large-scale smishing scam on Permanent TSB customers

AN ENGINEER HAS been jailed for 18 months for his part in a large-scale criminal operation’s smishing scam on Permanent TSB customers.

Iskilu Awolumate (28) of Hazelgrove Estate, Tallaght pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to handling the proceeds of crime at an unknown location on dates between March 2020 and January 2021.

Most of the counts relate to Permanent TSB customers and the court heard a Slovakian company was also subject to an invoice redirection fraud.

Permanent TSB customers were targeted in the smishing in which messages were sent by SMS and bank customers were duped into allowing third parties access to their bank accounts.

The court heard 22 accounts were affected but only three injured parties could be identified. None of the money was recovered and Permanent TSB reimbursed the customers affected.

Money from customer accounts ended up in Awolumate’s account, Garda Sergeant Conor Fleming told the court.

The total value of the money that went through Awolumate’s account was €25,800. He said there was no reason to believe that money was transferred on, or that the accused was just a mule who was being paid €100 per transaction as Awolumate claimed.

Judge Elva Duffy said it was “a large scale criminal operation” using Awolumate’s account “wholesale” whether or not the court found he was the beneficiary. The judge said this could not be accounted for by working. She sentenced him to two-and-a-half-years with the final year suspended.

The court heard that Gardaí attempted to contact Awolumate 13 times through an email address his mother had given them but he never responded and extradition proceedings were initiated, however, he eventually presented himself to Tallaght Garda Station.

He had a consultation with a solicitor and told gardai he was being paid €100 per transaction.

Awolumate said he was in fear of the people making him act as a mule and believed he was being stalked by them. He has two previous convictions for minor road traffic matters.

Now an Irish national, Awolumate came to Ireland from Nigeria when he was 11 and went to secondary school in Tallaght. The court heard he studied transport engineering in Dublin Institute of Technology, while working part-time and with a grant to put himself through college.

He now works as an equipment engineer in the Netherlands and earns up to €53,000 a year, the court was told.

The court heard there were originally 18 counts on the indictment, most of which pertained to smishing and one for invoice redirection. There were effectively nine injured parties but gardai were only able to identify three of those.

Defence counsel Sean Rafter BL said Awolumate was of previous good character and has been working hard doing his best. He brought €4,000 to court as a token of his remorse which could be applied to the losses in the case of Permanent TSB and the company which was subject to the redirect fraud Slovakia.

Counsel said his client did not take responsibility in the beginning, but has now accepted responsibility. He submitted his client was in the lowest category offending but “not in the lowest possible category.”

Sgt Fleming was recalled to give evidence and Diana Stuart BL, prosecuting, asked the guard what his role was and the garda said he had investigated a lot of similar cases and he did not believe Awolumate was just a mule.

After sentence was handed down, Awolumate appeared shocked for being jailed and asked if he could address to the court. “I’m going to lose my home, ” said Awolumate, to which Judge Duffy replied “I’m afraid you are going to lose your home.”

Rafter asked if Awolumate could get his affairs in order before going into custody.

Stuart said there was a concern as there were no ties to the jurisdiction. Defence counsel pointed out Awolumate’s mother is living here and he himself is an Irish citizen.

After Awolumate was led by prison officers into custody, a man who had accompanied him to court handed over €4,000 in cash, which was counted out by Sgt Fleming.