Money mule avoids jail for role in scamming Kerry couple
A young man has received a suspended sentence for his role in a scam which defrauded a Kerry couple of over €5,000.
20-year-old Ryan Odusanya of Bremore Pastures Drive, Balbriggan, Dublin, acted as a money mule in the scam.
An elderly couple from Kerry and a business owner from Galway were targeted.
The court previously heard an elderly man from Ballinskelligs received a text message from a number he did not recognise on 31st July 2023.
The text falsely claimed to be from his daughter, stating she was in dire straits financially and needed money.
The man’s daughter is a mother-of-four, living in Dublin and paying a mortgage.
He spoke with his wife and they agreed to forward money from their AIB account to the account details in the text, initially €880.
Following further requests from the same number, two more transfers were made totalling €5,380.
The couple had tried to call their daughter but couldn’t reach her, and only realised they had been scammed when another sibling called into the first daughter.
A Galway-based business was also scammed out of over €40,000.
Mr Odusanya was not involved in setting up or operating the scam, but he allowed his bank account to be used to hold over €20,000 in funds which were stolen by the scam.
The court heard Mr Odusanya was “a money mule” who had responded to an advert on Snapchat offering a small cash reward for the use of a bank account.
Judge Martin Nolan said these types of money laundering cases are coming before the courts in droves, and he is getting fed up with young people coming into the court saying they were young and stupid.
Judge Nolan handed him a 20-month sentence, which he suspended.
