A young Carlow woman will be sentenced next week for money laundering after her bank account was used in order to facilitate a large social welfare fraud.
Carlow Circuit Criminal Court heard that Dion Timmons (23) was approached in college by someone whom she considered to be a friend. She was asked to provide her account details and was informed that it was not a crime.
Timmons of Chaff Street, Graiguecullen, pleaded guilty that she did engage in converting/transferring/handling/acquiring/possessing or using property that is the proceeds of crime while knowing that/believing that/being reckless as to whether the cash was proceeds of criminal conduct on dates in April 2022. She has no previous convictions.
Tara Geoghegan BL defending told Judge Mary Morrissey that had her client known that this was a crime she would never have got involved in the offence.
She said that her client was 19 years old at the time and accepts now that her actions at the time “assisted fraudulent activity” and she recognises that her behaviour was “naïve and irresponsible”.
The court heard that a total of €12,374.64 was deposited into Timmons’ account in 23 separate transactions on dates between April 4, 2022 and April 28, 2022. The account had been opened on March 8, 2022 and ultimately closed on April 28,2022 because the bank had suspicions that the activity in the account was suspicious.
Ms Geoghegan said her client had “never in her life” seen such a significant amount of money and that the cash “did not enhance her lifestyle whatsoever.”
“It was not money she had at her disposal to have a lavish lifestyle in 2022,” counsel continued.
She said a probation report indicates that her client has engaged with The Probation Service. She is studying and hopes to ultimately qualify as an educational psychologist. She is working part time and is “keeping her head down”, Ms Geoghegan said.
Counsel submitted that her client has “a complex family background” and was going through a period of “emotionally instability” at the time of the offence.
Ms Geoghegan asked the court to accept that Timmons’ “vulnerability and poor decision making” led to her getting involved in the offence rather than “criminal behaviour”.
Judge Morrissey adjourned the sentence to next Thursday to allow her time to consider the various documents that were handed into court on Timmons’ behalf. Timmons was remanded on continuing bail.
Detective Garda Kieran Shields told Brian O’Shea BL prosecuting that the initial fraud began in Letterkenny, Donegal when unsuspecting people had their PPSN used to apply to the Department of Social Welfare for a €350 payment under an illness benefit scheme.
Det Gda Shields said that gardaí in Letterkenny identified a number of people that had been involved in the fraud and with the assistance of gardaí in other stations nationally identified the various money mule accounts that were used to facilitate the fraud.
Each of the applications were successful and later 19 payments of €350 were deposited into Timmons’ account. Four further payments, which were unrelated and taken from bank accounts in Germany were also lodged to the account – leading to a total of €12,374.64.
Det Gda Shields agreed with Ms Geoghegan that Timmons had never been in trouble before and never been in a garda station before her arrest. He confirmed that she has not come to adverse attention of the gardaí since and has abided by her bail conditions.
He said he “did not know” if she benefited financially from the money that had been lodged to her account.
Ms Geoghegan suggested that it was “a bigger network behind my client that are involved” in the overall fraud.
Det Gda Shields said that people were needed to open bank accounts before he added that “money moved swiftly” through Timmons’ account.
He said that money moved from this account into another account in Luxembourg.
Det Gda Shields confirmed that there were no victim impact statements in the case but he said that those people who had their PPSN used without their permission for payments that they never received may be put out when they now have “to get their affairs back in order for tax purposes”.