A fraudster who helped defraud a woman out of £70,000 in a 'horrific' scam was seen smiling as he left court after a judge decided to not send him to prison.
Dan Gheorghe, 23, was involved in a money laundering group that left a woman devastated after they tricked her into transferring her 'nest egg' savings into another bank account.
She was left 'bereft' and suffering feelings of 'devastation' after she was conned into thinking that her bank account was being raided and that she urgently needed to transfer her money to a 'safer' account.
Samantha Laws, prosecuting, said that Gheorghe and others were involved in a scam in which he allowed a bank account to be used for the transfer of money that had been illegally obtained.
Another woman also fell victim to the scam after one of Gheorghe's associates opened a bank account and allowed it to be used for the nasty and callous 'money laundering' operation, Hull Crown Court heard.
Gheorghe, of Edgecumbe Street, west Hull, admitted two offences of transferring criminal property.
But he able to walk away free from court with a one-year suspended prison sentence and 200 hours' unpaid work after Judge Mark Bury said Gheorghe had been 'manipulated' by those involved in the fraudulent enterprise.
The court heard that the first victim received a text message on May 22, 2022 about a postal delivery where she was being asked to pay £1.20 of missed fees. She clicked on a link and was taken to a supposed Post Office site to pay the fee.
She did so but later received a telephone call claiming to be from her own bank and telling her that the £1.20 payment had been intercepted and that someone was trying to withdraw £1,200 from her account.
She was advised that she needed to transfer all her money out of the account and into a 'safer' one.
She transferred £19,900 from her account to what turned out to be Gheorghe's account.
'She also transferred other large sums of money,' said Miss Laws.
The woman's total loss was £69,566 and it did not seem that she had been compensated by the bank, the court heard.
She later said that the 'mental toll' that the frauds had on her was 'horrific'. She was not getting any sleep and she constantly felt drained and distracted. She would wake up in the night and relive it all the time.
'I could not believe how stupid I have been,' she said. 'It was a constant noise in the back of my head. I really struggled. There has not been a single day in the last two years where I have not thought about it. It was my nest egg that I had built for the future.
'I felt bereft. It had really knocked my confidence in myself. All my savings that I had worked hard for had been taken. I did not know what to do.
She said that she had suffered a 'difficult time' with the bank after the fraud: 'My actions were being questioned and I was already feeling the strain mentally.'
She had suffered 'devastation' from the 'mental, emotional and financial damage that this has caused me'.
A second woman, who was also the victim of a scam, had been looking for a long-term rental property and spotted a Facebook Marketplace advertisement on November 7, 2022.
She sent a message to the profile involved that was under the name of a woman.
It was, in fact, run by the people who were involved with Gheorghe. There were further messages and the woman agreed to pay a security deposit and one month's rent upfront. She was sent a link to an online page for payment.
She understood that the website profile would hold the security payment for her. She transferred £1,500 on November 16, 2022.
'The bank account that she paid it to was the defendant's bank account,' said Miss Laws. Following an investigation, Gheorghe was arrested at his family home on July 16, 2023.
A provisional driving licence in his name was found and it had been used to create a bank account.
A passport in the name of a woman had also been used and there was a note with log-in details for several bank accounts.
During police interview, Gheorghe made no comment. He claimed that he did not know anything about the passport or why it was in his bedroom.
Neil Sands, mitigating, said that Gheorghe was working.
'He is fit and able to do unpaid work as part of a suspended sentence,' said Mr Sands. Gheorghe was helped during the court hearing by an Italian interpreter.
Judge Mark Bury said that Gheorghe was involved in 'money laundering' by using bank accounts that he had opened. 'Other people were operating a scam designed to trick money from law-abiding people who have saved it up,' said Judge Bury.
'That money ended up in bank accounts which you opened. Your basis of plea, accepted by the prosecution, was to the effect that this was your total involvement in this.
'You didn't make either any or, at least, very much out of it. Had you been involved in the enterprise that caused so much heartache, you would have been going to prison.
'I am prepared to sentence you on the basis that you yourself have been manipulated. You have not reoffended. You are in work.'
Gheorghe was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and 200 hours' unpaid work.
'If I see you again in the next two years, the door that you go through will be different from the door that you are going through today,' said Judge Bury.
Gheorghe told the court: 'I don't want this any more,' and claimed that he had learned his lesson.
